CHARlEftTHE  JIliF 


ENGRAVED    BY    CHARLES    COOK 


LOfTim  GE6R<'<  &SOHS,BEQADWA!(1  1CDGATE  BUI 


HISTORY    OF   THE   REIGN 

OF 

CHARLES    THE    FIFTH 

BY 

WILLIAM  ROBEETSON,  D.D. 

WITH  AN   ACCOUNT  OF 

THE  EMPEROR'S  LIFE  AFTER  HIS  ABDICATION 

BY 

WILLIAM    H.    PRESCOTT 


IN   TWO   VOLUMES— VOLUME   I. 


FUNK    &   WAGNALLS    COMPANY 

NEW    YORK 

1905 


ADVERTISEMENT. 

THE  life  of  Charles  the  Fifth  subsequently  to  his  abdi- 
cation is  disposed  of  by  Dr.  Kobertson  in  some  six  or  seven 
pages.  It  did  not,  in  truth,  come  strictly  within  the 
author's  plan,  which  proposed  only  a  history  of  the  reign  of 
the  emperor.  But,  unfortunately,  these  few  pages  contain 
many  inaccuracies,  and,  among  others,  a  very  erroneous 
view  of  the  interest  which  Charles,  in  his  retirement, 
took  in  the  concerns  of  the  government.  Yet  it  would 
be  unjust  to  impute  these  inaccuracies  to  want  of  care  in 
the  historian,  since  he  had  no  access  to  such  authentic 
sources  of  information  as  would  have  enabled  him  to 
correct  them.  Such  information  was  to  be  derived  from 
documents  in  the  archives  of  Simancas,  consisting,  among 
other  things,  of  the  original  correspondence  of  the 
emperor  and  his  household,  and  showing  conclusively 
that  the  monarch,  instead  of  remaining  dead  to  the  world 
in  his  retreat,  took  not  merely  an  interest,  but  a  decided 


20981 43 


iv  ADVEETISEMENT. 

part,  in  the  management  of  affairs.  But  in  Kobertson's 
day  Simancas  was  closed  against  the  native  as  well  as  the 
foreigner ;  and  it  is  not  until  within  a  few  years  that  the 
scholar  has  been  permitted  to  enter  its  dusty  recesses  and 
draw  thence  materials  to  illustrate  the  national  history. 
It  is  particularly  rich  in  materials  for  the  illustration  of 
Charles  the  Fifth's  life  after  his  abdication.  Availing 
themselves  of  the  opportunities  thus  afforded,  several  emi- 
nent writers,  both  in  England  and  on  the  Continent,  have 
bestowed  much  pains  in  investigating  a  passage  of  history 
hitherto  so  little  understood.  The  results  of  their  labours 
they  have  given  to  the  world  in  a  series  of  elaborate 
works,  which,  however  varying  in  details,  all  exhibit 
Charles's  character  and  conduct  in  his  retirement  in  a 
very  different  point  of  view  from  that  in  which  it  has 
been  usual  to  regard  them.  It  was  the  knowlege  of  this 
fact  which  led  the  publishers  of  the  present  edition  of 
Robertson's  "Charles  the  Fifth,"  to  request  me  to  prepare  " 
such  an  account  of  his  monastic  life  as  might  place  before 
the  reader  the  results  of  the  recent  researches  in  Simancas, 
and  that  in  a  more  concise  form — as  better  suited  to  the 
purpose  for  which  it  was  designed — than  had  been 
adopted  by  preceding  writers.  I  was  the  more  willing  to 
undertake  the  task,  that  my  previous  studies  had  made 


ADVEBTTSEMENT.  V 

me  familiar  with  the  subject,  and  that  I  was  possessed  of 
a  large  body  of  authentic  documents  relating  to  it,  copied 
from  the  originals  in  Simancas.  These  documents,  indeed, 
form  fie  basis  of  a  chapter  on  the  monastic  life  of  Charles 
at  the  close  of  the  first  Book  of  the  History  of  Philip  the 
Second, — written,  I  may  add,  in  the  summer  of  1851, 
more  than  a  year  previous  to  the  publication  of  Mr. 
Stirling's  admirable  work,  which  led  the  way  in  the 
series  of  brilliant  productions  relating  to  the  cloister  life 
of  Charles. 

In  complying  with  the  request  of  the  publishers,  I 
have  made  the  authentic  records  which  I  have  received 
from  Simancas  the  foundation  of  my  narrative, — freely 
availing  myself,  at  the  same  time,  of  the  labours  of  my 
predecessors,  especially  those  of  Mr.  Stirling  and  M. 
Mignet,  wherever  they  have  thrown  light  on  the  path 
from  sources  not  within  my  reach. 

In  the  performance  of  the  task  I  have  been  insensibly 
led  into  a  much  greater  length  than  I  had  originally 
intended,  or  than,  I  fear,  will  be  altogether  palatable  to 
those  who  have  become  already  familiar  with  the  narrative 
in  the  writings  of  those  who  have  preceded  me.  To  such 
readers  I  cannot,  indeed,  flatter  myself  that  I  have  given 


vi  ADVERTISEMENT. 

any  information  of  importance  beyond  what  they  may 
have  acquired  from  these  more  extended  and  elaborate 
works.  But  by  far  the  larger  part  of  readers  in  our 
community  have  probably  had  no  access  to  these  works  ; 
and  I  may  express  the  hope  that  I  have  executed  the  task 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  satisfy  any  curiosity  which,  after 
perusing  the  narrative  of  the  illustrious  Sottish  historian, 
they  may  naturally  feel  respecting  the  closing  scenes  in 
the  life  of  the  great  emperor. 

WILLIAM  H.  PRESCOTT. 

BOSTOH,  November  10,  1866 


TO 

THE    KING. 

SIR,— 

I  PRESUME  to  lay  before  your  Majesty  the  history  of  a  period 
vrhich,  if  the  abilities  of  the  writer  were  equal  to  the  dignity  of 
the  subject,  would  not  be  unworthy  the  attention  of  a  monarch 
who  is  no  less  a  judge  than  a  patron  of  literary  merit. 

History  claims  it  as  her  prerogative  to  offer  instruction  to 
kings,  as  well  as  to  their  people.  What  reflections  the  reign 
of  the  Emperor  Charles  the  Fifth  may  suggest  to  your  Majesty, 
it  becomes  not  me  to  conjecture.  But  your  subjects  cannot 
observe  the  various  calamities  which  that  monarch's  ambition 
to  be  distinguished  as  a  conqueror  brought  upon  his  domi- 
nions, without  recollecting  the  felicity  of  their  own  times,  and 
looking  up  with  gratitude  to  their  sovereign,  who,  during  the 
fervour  of  youth,  and  amidst  the  career  of  victory,  possessed 
such  self-command,  and  maturity  of  judgment,  as  to  set  bounds 
to  his  own  triumphs,  and  prefer  the  blessings  of  peace  to  the 
splendour  of  military  glory. 

Posterity  will  not  only  celebrate  the  wisdom  of  your 
Majesty's  choice,  but  will  enumerate  the  many  virtues  which 


yiii  DEDICATION. 

render  your  reign  conspicuous  for  a  sacred  regard  to  all  the 
duties  incumbent  on  the  sovereign  of  a  free  people. 

It  is  our  happiness  to  feel  the  influence  of  these  virtues,  and 
to  live  under  the  dominion  of  a  prince  who  delights  more  in 
promoting  the  public  welfare  than  in  receiving  the  just  praise 
of  his  royal  beneficence. 

I  am,  Sir, 

Your  Majesty's  most  faithful  subject, 
And  dutiful  servant, 

WILLIAM   ROBERTSON. 


PEEFACE. 

No  period  in  the  history  of  one's  own  country  can  be 
considered  as  altogether  uninteresting.  Such  transac- 
tions as  tend  to  illustrate  the  progress  of  its  constitution, 
laws,  or  manners,  merit  the  utmost  attention.  Even  re- 
mote and  minute  events  are  objects  of  a  curiosity,  which 
being  natural  to  the  human  mind,  the  gratification  of 
it  is  attended  with  pleasure. 

But  with  respect  to  the  history  of  foreign  states,  we 
must  set  other  bounds  to  our  desire  of  information.  The 
universal  progress  of  science  during  the  last  two  centuries, 
the  art  of  printing,  and  other  obvious  causes,  have  filled 
Europe  with  such  a  multiplicity  of  histories,  and  with 
such  vast  collections  of  historical  materials,  that  the  term 
of  human  life  is  too  short  for  the  study  or  even  the 
perusal  of  them.  It  is  necessary,  then,  not  only  for  those 
who  are  called  to  conduct  the  affairs  of  nations,  but  for 
such  as  inquire  and  reason  concerning  them,  to  remain 
satisfied  with  a  general  knowledge  of  distant  events,  and 
to  confine  their  study  of  history  in  detail  chiefly  to  that 
period  in  which,  the  several  states  of  Europe  having 
become  intimately  connected,  the  operations  of  one  power 
are  so  felt  by  all  as  to  influence  their  councils  and  to 
regulate  their  measures. 

Some  boundary,  then,  ought  to  be  fixed,  in  order  to 
separate  these  periods.  An  era  should  be  pointed  out, 
prior  to  which  each  country,  little  connected  with  those 
around  it,  may  trace  its  own  history  apart ;  after  which, 


X  PREFACE. 

the  transactions  of  every  considerable  nation  in  Europo, 
become  interesting  and  instructive  to  all.  With  this 
intention  I  undertook  to  write  the  History  of  the  Emperor 
Charles  the  Fifth.  It  was  during  his  administration  that 
the  powers  of  Europe  were  formed  into  one  great  politi- 
cal system,  in  which  each  took  a  station,  wherein  it  has 
since  remained  with  less  variation  than  could  have  been 
expected  after  the  shocks  occasioned  by  so  many  internal 
revolutions  and  so  many  foreign  wars.  The  great  events 
which  happened  then  have  not  hitherto  spent  their  force. 
The  political  principles  and  maxims  then  established  still 
continue  to  operate.  The  ideas  concerning  the  balance  of 
power  then  introduced,  or  rendered  general,  still  influence 
the  councils  of  nations. 

The  age  of  Charles  the  Fifth  may  therefore  be  con- 
sidered as  the  period  at  which  the  political  state  of  Europe 
began  to  assume  a  new  form.  I  have  endeavoured  to 
render  my  account  of  it  an  introduction  to  the  history  of 
Europe  subsequent  to  his  reign.  While  his  numerous 
biographers  describe  his  personal  qualities  and  actions, 
while  the  historians  of  different  countries  relate  occur- 
rences the  consequences  of  which  were  local  or  transient, 
it  hath  been  my  purpose  to  record  only  those  great  trans- 
actions in  his  reign,  the  effects  of  which  were  universal 
or  continue  to  be  permanent. 

As  my  readers  could  derive  little  instruction  from  such 
a  history  of  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Fifth  without  some 
information  concerning  the  state  of  Europe  previous  to 
the  sixteenth  century,  my  desire  of  supplying  this  has 
produced  a  preliminary  volume,*  in  which  I  have 
attempted  to  point  out  and  to  explain  the  great  causes 

*  These  passages  in  the  text  re-  a  somewhat  different   arrangement 

fear   to   the   original    edition  :    the  in  respect   to  the  division    of   the 

additional   matter   incorporated  in  volumes, 
the  present    edition    has    required 


PREFACE.  XI 

and  events  to  whose  operation  all  the  improvements  in 
the  political  state  of  Europe,  from  the  subversion  of  the 
Roman  empire  to  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
must  be  ascribed.  I  have  exhibited  a  view  of  the  pro- 
gress of  society  in  Europe,  not  only  with  respect  to  interior 
government,  laws,  and  manners,  but  with  respect  to 
the  command  of  the  national  force  requisite  in  foreign 
operations ;  and  I  have  described  the  political  consti- 
tution of  the  principal  states  in  Europe  at  the  time  when 
Charles  the  Fifth  began  his  reign. 

In  this  part  of  my  work  I  have  been  led  into  several 
critical  disquisitions,  which  belong  more  properly  to  the 
province  of  the  lawyer  or  antiquary  than  to  that  of  the 
historian.  These  I  have  placed  at  the  end  of  the  first 
volume,  under  the  title  of  Proofs  and  Illustrations.* 
Many  of  my  readers  will,  probably,  give  little  attention 
to  such  researches.  To  some,  they  may  perhaps  appear 
the  most  curious  and  interesting  part  of  the  work.  I 
have  carefully  pointed  out  the  sources  from  which  I  have 
derived  information,  and  have  cited  the  writers  on  whose 
authority  I  rely  with  a  minute  exactness,  which  might 
appear  to  border  upon  ostentation,  if  it  were  possible  to 
be  vain  of  having  read  books,  many  of  which  nothing  but 
the  duty  of  examining  with  accuracy  whatever  I  laid 
before  the  public  could  have  induced  me  to  open.  As 
my  inquiries  conducted  me  often  into  paths  which  were 
obscure  or  little  frequented,  such  constant  references  to 
the  authors  who  have  been  my  guides  were  not  only 
necessary  for  authenticating  the  facts  which  are  the 
foundations  of  my  reasonings,  but  may  be  useful  in 
pointing  out  the  way  to  such  as  shall  hereafter  hold  the 
same  course,  and  in  enabling  them  to  carry  on  their 
researches  with  greater  facility  and  success. 

*  See  note  on  p.  z. 


Xll  PREFACE. 

Every  intelligent  reader  will  observe  ont<  omission  in 
my  work,  the  reason  of  which  it  is  necessaiy  to  explain. 
I  have  given  no  account  of  the  conquests  of  Mexico  and 
Peru,  or  of  the  establishment  of  the  Spanish  colonies  in 
the  continent  and  islands  of  America.  The  history  of 
these  events  I  originally  intended  to  have  related  at  con- 
siderable length.  But  upon  a  nearer  and  more  attentive 
consideration  of  this  part  of  my  plan,  I  found  that  the 
discovery  of  the  New  World,  the  state  of  society  among 
its  ancient  inhabitants,  their  character,  manners,  and  arts, 
the  genius  of  the  European  settlements  in  its  various 
provinces,  together  with  the  influence  of  these  upon  the 
systems  of  policy  or  commerce  in  Europe,  were  subjects 
so  splendid  and  important  that  a  superficial  view  of  them 
could  afford  little  satisfaction ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to 
treat  of  them  as  extensively  as  they  merited  must  produce 
an  episode  disproportionate  to  the  principal  work.  I  have 
therefore  reserved  these  for  a  separate  history  ;  which,  if 
the  performance  now  offered  to  the  public  shall  receive  its 
approbation,  I  purpose  to  undertake. 

Though,  by  omitting  such  considerable  but  detached 
articles  in  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Fifth,  I  have  circum- 
scribed my  narration  within  more  narrow  limits,  I  am  yet 
persuaded,  from  this  view  of  the  intention  and  nature  of 
the  work  which  I  thought  it  necessary  to  lay  before  my 
readers,  that  the  plan  must  still  appear  to  them  too 
extensive,  and  the  undertaking  too  arduous.  I  have  often 
felt  them  to  be  so.  But  my  conviction  of  the  utility  of 
such  a  history  prompted  me  to  persevere.  With  what 
success  I  have  executed  it,  the  public  must  now  judge. 
I  wait,  not  without  solicitude,  for  its  decision,  to  which 
I  shall  submit  with  a  respectful  silence. 


CONTENTS    OF    VOL.   I. 


A  VIEW    OF  THE  PROGRESS   OF   SOCIETY 
IN   EUROPE. 

SECTION    I. 

VIEW  OF  THE  PROGRESS   OF   SOCIETY   IN   EUROPE   WITH   RESPECT   TO 
INTERIOR  GOVERNMENT,  LAWS,  AND  MANNERS. 

I'AQB 

The  Effects  of  the  Roman  Power  on  the  Shite  of  Europe. — The  Irruption 
of  the  Barbarous  Nations. — Their  Settlements  in  the  Countries  they 
had  conquered.  —Decay  of  the  Roman  Empire. — Desolation  occasioned  • 
by  the  Barbarians. — Origin  of  the  present  Political  System  of  Europe. 
— The  Feudal  System. — Its  Effects  upon  the  Arts,  Literature,  and 
Religion. — The  Crusades,  and  their  Effects  upon  Society. — Growth  of 
Municipal  Institutions. — Emancipation  of  the  Peasantry. — Beginning 
of  a  regular  Administration  of  Justice. — Trial  by  Combat. — Appeals. — 
Ecclesiastical  Courts. — Discovery  of  the  Code  of  Justinian. — Chivalry. 
— Revival  of  Learning. — Influence  of  Commerce. — Italians  the  First 
Merchants  and  Bankers. — Rise  of  Trade  and  Manufactures  among  the 
Cities  of  the  Hanseatic  League. — In  the  Netherlands. — In  England  .  1 — 79 


SECTION    H. 

VIEW  OF  THE  PROGRESS  OP  SOCIETY  IN  EUROPE  WITH  RESPECT  TO 
THE  COMMAND  OP  THE  NATIONAL  FORCE  REQUISITE  IN  FOREIGN 
OPERATIONS. 

Improved  State  of  Society  at  the  Beginning  of  the  Fifteenth  Century. — 
The  Concentration  of  Resources  in  European  States. — The  Power  of 
Monarchs  ;  their  Revenues  and  Armies. — Affairs  of  Different  States  at 
first  entirely  Distinct.  —  Progress  of  Combination. — Loss  of  Continen- 
tal Territory  by  the  English. — Effects  upon  the  French  Monarchy. — 
Growth  of  Standing  Armies,  and  of  the  Royal  Prerogative  under  Louis 
XL — His  Example  imitated  in  England  and  in  Spain. — The  heiress  of 
Burgundy. — Perfidious  Conduct  of  Louis  XL  towards  her. — Her  Mar- 
riage with  Maximilian,  Archduke  of  Austria. — Invasion  of  Italy  by 
Charles  VIII. — The  Balance  of  Power.— Use  of  Infantry  in  Armies. — 
League  of  Cambray  against  Venice 80—116 

SECTION    III. 

VIEW  OP  THE  POLITICAL  CONSTITUTION  OP  THE  PRINCIPAL  STATES  IN 
EUROPE,  AT  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OP  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Ftaly  at  the  Beginning  of  the  Sixteenth  Century.— The  Papal  Power. — 
Alexander  VI.  and  Julius  II. — Defects  in  Ecclesiastical  Governments. 


XIV  CONTENTS. 


—  Venice  ;  its  Rise  and  Progress  ;  its  Naval  Power  and  its  Commerce  ; 
Florence.  —  Naples  and    Sicily.  —  Contest  for    its   Crown.  —  Duchy  of 
Milan.  —  Ludovico  Sforza.  —  Spain  ;  conquered  by  the  Vandals  and  by 
the   Moors  ;  gradually  re-conquered  by  the  Christians.  —  Marriage  of 
Ferdinand   and    Isabella.  —  The   Eoyal    Prerogative.  —  Constitution   of 
Aragon  and   of    Castile.  —  Internal   Disorders.  —  "  The   Holy    Brother- 
hood." —  France  ;   its  Constitution  and  Government.  —  The    Power  of 
its  Early  Kings.  —  Government  becomes  purely  Monarchical,  though 
restrained  by  the  Nobles  and  the  Parliaments.  —  The  German  Empire. 

—  Power  of  the  Nobles  and  of  the  Clergy.—  Contests  between  the  Popes 
and  the  Emperors.  —  Decline  of  Imperial  Authority.  —  Total  Change  of 
Government.  —  Maximilian.  —  The  Real   Power   and  Revenues  of  the 
Emperors,  contrasted  with  their  Pretensions.  —  Complication  of  Diffi- 
culties.— Origin  of  the  Turkish  Empire  ;  its  Character.  —  The  Janizaries. 
Solyman      ...........      116—181 

PBOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS        .....       •       •   .  183  —  290 


HISTOKY    OF    CHAELES    V. 

BOOK    I. 

Birth  of  Charles  V. — His  Hereditary  Dominions. — Philip  and  Joanna,  his 
Parents. — Birth  of  Ferdinand,  his  Brother. — Death  of  Isabella. — 
Philip's  Attempts  to  obtain  the  Government  of  Castile. — The  Regent 
Ferdinand  marries  a  Niece  of  the  French  King  to  exclude  Philip  and 
his  Daughter. — The  Castilian  Nobility  declare  for  Philip. — Philip  and 
Joanna  proclaimed. — Death  of  Philip. — Incapacity  of  Joanna. — Ferdi- 
nand made  Regent. — His  Acquisition  of  Territory. — His  Death. — 
Education  of  Charles  V. — Cardinals  Ximenes  and  Adrian. — Charles 
acknowledged  King. — Ximenes  strengthens  the  Royal  Power ;  is 
opposed  by  the  Nobles. — War  in  Navarre  and  in  Africa. — Peace  with 
France. — Charles  visits  Spain. — His  Ingratitude  towards  Ximenes. — 
Death  of  the  Latter. — Discontent  of  the  Castilians. — Corruption  of  the 
King's  Flemish  Favourites. — Reception  of  Charles  in  Aragon. — Death 
of  the  Emperor  Maximilian. — Charles  and  Francis  I.  Competitors  for 
the  Empire. — Views  of  the  other  Reigning  Potentates. — Assembly  of 
the  Electors. — The  Crown  offered  to  Frederic  of  Saxony. — He  declines 
in  Favour  of  Charles,  who  is  chosen. — Discontent  of  the  Spaniards. — 
Insurrection  in  Valencia. — The  Cortes  of  Castile  summoned  to  meet  in 
Galicia. — Charles  appoints  Regents,  and  embarks  for  the  Low  Coun- 
tries ....  .  293— .-558 


BOOK    II. 

Rivalry  between  Charles  and  Francis  1."  for  the  Empire. — They  negotiate 
with  the  Pope,  the  Venetians,  and  Henry  VIII.  of  England. — Character 
of  the  latter. — Cardinal  Wolsey. — Charles  visits  England. — Meeting 
between  Henry  VIII.  and  Francis  I. — Coronation  of  Charles. — Soly- 
man the  Magnificent. — The  Diet  convoked  at  Worms. — The  Reforma- 
tion.— Sale  of  Indulgences  by  Leo  X. — Tetzel. — Luther. — Progress  of 
his  Opinions. — Is  summoned  to  Rome. — His  Appearance  before  the 
Legate. — His  Appeals  to  a  General  Council. — Luther  questions  the 


CONTENTS.  XV 

MM 

Papal  Authority. — Reformation  in  Switzerland. — Excommunication  of 
Luther. — Reformation  in  Germany. — Causes  of  the  Progress  of  the 
Reformation. — The  Corruption  in  the  Roman  Church. — Power  and  HI 
Conduct  of  the  Clergy. —Venality  of  the  Roman  Court. — Effects  of  the 
Invention  of  Printing.--  Erasmus. — The  Diet  at  Worms. — Edict  against 
Luther.— He  is  seized  and  confined  at  Wartburg. — His  Doctrines  con- 
demned by  the  University  of  Paris,  and  controverted  by  Henry  VIII.  of 
England.-  Henry  VIII.  favours  the  Emperor  Charles  against  Francis  L 
— Leo  X.  makes  a  Treaty  with  Charles.—  Death  of  Chievres.  -  Hostilities 
in  Navarre  and  in  the  Low  Countries. — Siege  of  Mezieres. —  Congress 
at  Calais. — League  against  France.— Hostilities  in  Italy. — Death  of 
Leo  X.— Defeat  of  the  French. — Henry  VIII.  declares  War  against 
France.  —  Charles  visits  England. — Conquest  of  Rhodes  by  Solyman  359 — 445 

BOOK    III. 

Insurrections. — Attempts  of  the  Regent,  Adrian,  to  suppress  them. — Con- 
federacy in  Castile  against  him. — Measures  taken  by  the  Emperor. — 
Remonstrance  of  the  Junta.— They  take  up  Arms. — Their  Negotiations 
with  the  Nobles. — The  Junta  under  Padilla  defeated  in  Battle. — 
Defence  of  Toledo  by  his  Widow. — The  War  in  Valencia  and  in  Ma- 
jorca.— Generosity  of  the  Emperor. — Reception  of  Adrian  at  Rome. — 
His  Pacific  Policy. — A  New  League  against  France. — Treachery  of  the 
Duke  of  Bourbon. — Francis  attacks  Milan. — Death  of  Adrian,  and 
Election  of  Clement  VII. — Disappointment  of  Wolsey. — Progress  of 
the  War  with  France. — Pope  Clement  unable  to  bring  about  Peace. — 
The  French  abandon  the  Milanese. — Death  of  Bayard. — The  Reforma- 
tion in  Germany. — Luther  translates  the  Bible. — The  Diet  at  Nurem- 
berg proposes  a  General  Council.— The  Diet  presents  a  List  of  Griev- 
ances to  the  Pope. — Opinion  at  Rome  concerning  the  Policy  of  Adrian. 
— Clement's  Measures  against  Luther 446 — 502 

BOOK    IV. 

Views  of  the  Italian  States  respecting  Charles  and  Francis. — Charles  invades 
France  without  Success. — Francis  invades  the  Milanese. — He  besieges 
Pavia. — Neutrality  of  the  Pope. — Francis  attacks  Naples. — Movements 
of  the  Imperial  Generals. — Battle  of  Pavia. — Francis  taken  Prisoner. — 
Schemes  of  the  Emperor. — Prudence  of  Louise  the  Regent. —  Conduct 
of  Henry  VIII.  and  of  the  Italian  Powers. — The  Emperor's  rigorous 
Terms  to  Francis. — Francis  carried  to  Spain. — Henry  makes  a  Treaty 
with  the  Regent  Louise. — Intrigues  of  Morone  in  Milan. — He  is  be- 
trayed by  Pescara, — Treatment  of  Francis. — Bourbon  made  General 
and  Duke  of  Milan. — Treaty  of  Madrid.— Liberation  of  Francis. — 
Charles  marries  Isabella  of  Portugal. — Affairs  in  Germany. — Insurrec- 
tions.— Conduct  of  Luther. — Prussia  wrested  from  the  Teutonic  Knights. 
— Measures  of  Francis  upon  reaching  his  Kingdom. — A  League  against 
the  Emperor. — Preparations  for  War. — The  Colonnas  Masters  of  Rome. 
— The  Pope  detached  from  the  Holy  League. — Position  of  the  Emperor. 
— Bourbon  marches  towards  the  Pope's  Territories. — Negotiations. — 
Assault  of  Rome. — Bourbon  slain. — The  City  taken  and  plundered. — 
The  Pope  a  Prisoner. — Hypocrisy  of  the  Emperor. — Solyman  invades 
Hungary. — Ferdinand,  Archduke  of  Austria,  becomes  King  of  Hungary. 
— Progress  of  the  Reformation 503 — 576 

BOOK    V. 

General  Indignation  and  Confederacy  against  the  Emperor. — The  Floren- 
tines.—The  French  Army  in  Italy. — The  Emperor  sets  the  Pope  at 


CONTENTS. 


Liberty,  and  makes  Pacific  Overtures. — A  Royal  Challenge. — Retreat 
of  the  Imperial  Army  from  Rome. — The  French  besiege  Naples-- 
Revolt of  Andrew  Doria. — Freedom  of  Genoa. — Operations  in  the 
Milanese. — Treaty  between  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor,  and  between 
Charles  and  Francis. — Henry  VIII.  seeks  a  Divorce  from  his  Queen, 
Catharine  of  Aragon. — Charles  visits  Italy  and  re-establishes  the  Power 
of  the  Medici. — Returns  to  Germany. —  The  Diet  of  Spires. — The  Protest. 
— The  Diet  of  Augsburg.  —  Decree  against  the  Protestants. — Charles 
makes  his  Brother  Ferdinand  King  of  the  Romans. — Negotiations  of 
the  Protestants. — The  Campaign  in  Hungary. — Conference  between 
the  Emperor  and  the  Pope. — Movements  of  the  French  King. — Henry 
divorced  from  Queen  Catharine  by  the  Archbishop,  and  excommuni- 
cated by  the  Pope. — Papal  Authority  abolished  in  England. — Death  of 
Clement  VII.— Pope  Paul  III. — Insurrection  of  the  Anabaptists  in 
Germany. — They  become  Masters  of  Munster. — John  of  Leyden  crowned 
King. — Confederacy  against  him. — Munster  besieged  and  taken. — The 
League  of  Smalkalde. — Expedition  of  the  Emperor  to  Africa. — The 
Barbary  States. — The  Barbarossas.— Conquest  of  Tunis. — The  Emperor 
besieges  Goletta,  defeats  Barbarossa.  and  restores  the  King  of  Tunis. 

577- -668 


A    VIEW 


OF  THE 


PROGRESS    OF    SOCIETY   IN    EUROPE, 

FBOH  THE 

SUBVERSION    OF    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE 
TO    THE    BEGINNING    OF    THE    SIXTEENTH    UENTUBY. 


YOU  t. 


A   VIEW 


or  THE 


PROGRESS  OF  SOCIETY  IN  EUROPE, 

FROM    THE    SUBVERSION    OF    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE    TO 
THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY. 


SECTION   I. 

VIEW  OF  THE  PROGRESS  OF  SOCIETY  IN  EUROPE  WITH 
RESPECT  TO  INTERIOR  GOVERNMENT,  LAWS,  AND 
MANNERS. 

The  Effects  of  the  Roman  Power  on  the  State  of  Europe. — The  Irruption 
of  the  Barbarous  Nations. — Their  Settlements  in  the  Countries  they 
had  conquered. — Decay  of  the  Roman  Empire. — Desolation  occasioned 
by  the  Barbarians.  — Origin  of  the  present  Political  System  of  Europe. 
— The  Feudal  System. — Its  Effects  upon  the  Arts,  Literature,  and 
Religion. — The  Crusades,  and  their  Effects  upon  Society. — Growth  of 
Municipal  Institutions. — Emancipation  of  the  Peasantry. — Beginning 
of  a  regular  Administration  of  Justice. — Trial  by  Combat — Appeals. 
—  Ecclesiastical  Courts. — Discovery  of  the  Code  of  Justinian. — 
Chivalry. — Revival  of  Learning. — Influence  of  Commerce. — Italians 
the  first  Merchants  and  Bankers. — Rise  of  Trade  and  Manufactures 
among  the  Cities  of  the  Hanseatic  League, — in  the  Netherlands, — in 
England. 

Two  great  revolutions  have  happened  in  the  political 
slate  and  in  the  manners  of  the  European  nations.  The 
first  was  occasioned  by  the  progress  of  the  Eoman 
power ;  the  second  by  the  subversion  of  it.  When 
the  spirit  of  conquest  led  the  armies  of  Eome  beyond 
the  Alps,  they  found  all  the  countries  which  they  in- 
vaded inhabited  by  people  whom  they  denominated 

B   2 


*  A   VIEW   OF    THE  [SECTION  i. 

barbarians,  but  who  were  nevertheless  brave  and  inde- 
pendent. These  defended  their  ancient  possessions 
with  obstinate  valour.  It  was  by  the  superiority  of  their 
discipline,  rather  than  that  of  their  courage,  that  the 
Romans  gained  any  advantage  over  them.  A  single 
battle  did  not,  as  among  the  effeminate  inhabitants 
of  Asia,  decide  the  fate  of  a  state.  The  vanquished 
people  resumed  their  arms  with  fresh  spirit,  and  their 
undisciplined  valour,  animated  by  the  love  of  liberty, 
supplied  the  want  of  conduct  as  well  as  of  union. 
During  those  long  and  fierce  struggles  for  dominion 
or  independence,  the  countries  of  Europe  were  suc- 
cessively laid  waste,  a  great  part  of  their  inhabitants 
perished  in  the  field,  many  were  carried  into  slavery, 
and  a  feeble  remnant,  incapable  of  farther  resistance, 
submitted  to  the  Eoman  power. 

The  Eomans,  having  thus  desolated  Europe,  set  them- 
selves to  civilize  it.  The  form  of  government  which 
they  established  in  the  conquered  provinces,  though 
severe,  was  regular,  and  preserved  public  tranquillity. 
As  a  consolation  for  the  loss  of  liberty,  they  commu- 
nicated their  arts,  sciences,  language,  and  manners  to 
their  new  subjects.  Europe  began  to  breathe,  and  to 
recover  strength  after  the  calamities  which  it  had  un- 
dergone ;  agriculture  was  encouraged ;  population  in- 
creased ;  the  ruined  cities  were  rebuilt ;  new  towns 
were  founded;  an  appearance  of  prosperity  succeeded, 
and  repaired  in  some  degree,  the  havoc  of  war. 

This  state,  however,  was  far  from  being  happy  or 
favourable  to  the  improvement  of  the  human  mind. 
The  vanquished  nations  were  disarmed  by  their  con- 
querors and  overawed  by  soldiers  kept  in  pay  to  restrain 
them.  They  were  given  up  as  a  prey  to  rapacious 
governors,  who  plundered  them  with  impunity,  and  were 
drained  of  their  wealth  by  exorbitant  taxes,  levied  with 
so  little  attention  to  the  situation  of  the  provinces  that 


SECTION  i.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  5 

the  impositions  were  often  increased  in  proportion  to 
their  inability  to  support  them.  They  were  deprived 
of  their  most  enterprising  citizens,  who  resorted  to  a 
distant  capitel  in  quest  of  preferment  or  of  riches ;  and 
were  accustomed  in  all  their  actions  to  look  up  to  a 
superior  and  tamely  to  receive  his  commands.  Under 
so  many  depressing  circumstances,  it  was  hardly  pos- 
sible that  they  could  retain  vigour  or  generosity  of  mind. 
The  martial  and  independent  spirit  which  had  distin- 
guished their  ancestors  became  in  a  great  measure  ex- 
tinct among  all  the  people  subjected  to  the  Eoman 
yoke ;  they  lost  not  only  the  habit  but  even  the  capa- 
city of  deciding  for  themselves  or  of  acting  from  the 
impulse  of  their  own  minds ;  and  the  dominion  of  the 
Eomans,  like  that  of  all  great  empires,  degraded  and 
debased  the  human  species.1 

A  society  in  such  a  state  could  not  subsist  long. 
There  were  defects  in  the  Eoman  government,  even  in 
its  most  perfect  form,  which  threatened  its  dissolution. 
Time  ripened  these  original  seeds  of  corruption,  and 
gave  birth  to  many  new  disorders.  A  constitution  un- 
sound and  worn  out  must  have  fallen  into  pieces  of 
itself,  without  any  external  shock.  The  violent  irrup- 
tion of  the  Goths,  Yandals,  Huns,  and  other  barbarians 
hastened  this  event,  and  precipitated  the  downfall  of 
the  empire.  New  nations  seemed  to  arise,  and  to  rush 
from  unknown  regions,  in  order  to  take  vengeance  on 
the  Eomans  for  the  calamities  which  they  had  inflicted 
on  mankind.  These  fierce  tribes  either  inhabited  the 
various  provinces  in  Germany  which  had  never  been 
subdued  by  the  Eomans,  or  were  scattered  over  those 
vast  countries  in  the  north  of  Europe  and  northwest  of 
Asia  which  are  now  occupied  by  the  Danes,  the  Swedes, 
the  Poles,  the  subjects  of  the  Eussian  empire,  and  the 
Tartars.  Their  condition  and  transactions  previous  to 

1  NoteL 


6  A   VIEW   OF    THE  [SECTION  I. 

their  invasion  of  the  empire  are  but  little  known. 
Almost  all  our  information  with  respect  to  these  is 
derived  from  the  Eomans ;  and,  as  they  did  not  pene- 
trate far  into  countries  which  were  at  that  time  uncul- 
tivated and  uninviting,  the  accounts  of  their  original 
state  given  by  the  Roman  historians  are  extremely  im- 
perfect. The  rude  inhabitants  themselves,  destitute  of 
science  as  well  as  of  records,  and  without  leisure  or 
curiosity  to  inquire  into  remote  events,  retained,  per- 
haps, some  indistinct  memory  of  recent  occurrences, 
but  beyond  these  all  was  buried  in  oblivion  or  involved 
in  darkness  and  in  fable.2 

The  prodigious  swarms  which  poured  in  upon  the 
empire  from  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century  to 
the  final  extinction  of  the  Roman  power  have  given 
rise  to  an  opinion  that  the  countries  whence  they  issued 
were  crowded  with  inhabitants ;  and  various  theories 
have  been  formed  to  account  for  such  an  extraordinary 
degree  of  population  as  hath  procured  these  countries 
the  appellation  of  "  the  storehouse  of  nations."  But  if 
we  consider  that  the  countries  possessed  by  the  people 
who  invaded  the  empire  were  of  vast  extent,  that  a 
great  part  of  these  was  covered  with  woods  and  marshes, 
that  some  of  the  most  considerable  of  the  barbarous 
nations  subsisted  entirely  by  hunting  or  pasturage,  in 
both  which  states  of  society  large  tracts  of  land  are 
required  for  maintaining  a  few  inhabitants,  and  that  all 
of  them  were  strangers  to  the  arts  and  industry,  without 
which  population  cannot  increase  to  any  great  degree, 
we  must  conclude  that  these  countries  could  not  be  so 
populous  in  ancient  times  as  they  are  in  the  present, 
when  they  still  continue  to  be  less  peopled  than  any 
other  part  of  Europe  or  of  Asia. 

But  the  same  circumstances  that  prevented  the  bar- 
barous nations  from  becoming  populous  contributed  to 

8  Note  II. 


N  i.]  STATE    Otf    EUEOPE.  7 

inspire,  or  to  strengthen,  the  martial  spirit  by  which 
they  were  distinguished.  Inured  by  the  rigour  of  their 
climate,  or  the  poverty  of  their  soil,  to  hardships  which 
rendered  their  bodies  firm  and  their  minds  vigorous, 
accustomed  to  a  course  of  life  which  was  a  continual 
preparation  for  action,  and  disdaining  every  occupation 
but  that  of  war  or  of  hunting,  they  undertook  and  prose- 
cuted their  military  enterprises  with  an  ardour  and 
impetuosity  of  which  men  softened  by  the  refinements 
of  more  polished  times  can  scarcely  form  any  idea.3 

Their  first  inroads  into  the  empire  proceeded  rather 
from  the  love  of  plunder  than  from  the  desire  of  new 
settlements.  Eoused  to  arms  by  some  enterprising  or 
popular  leader,  they  sallied  out  of  their  forests,  broke 
in  upon  the  frontier  provinces  with  irresistible  violence, 
put  all  who  opposed  them  to  the  sword,  carried  off  the 
most  valuable  effects  of  the  inhabitants,  dragged  along 
multitudes  of  captives  in  chains,  wasted  all  before  them 
with  fire  or  sword,  and  returned  in  triumph  to  their 
wilds  and  fastnesses.  Their  success,  together  with  the 
accounts  which  they  gave  of  the  unknown  conveniences 
and  luxuries  that  abounded  in  countries  better  culti- 
vated or  blessed  with  a  milder  climate  than  their  own, 
excited  new  adventurers  and  exposed  the  frontier  to  new 
devastations. 

When  nothing  was  left  to  plunder  in  the  adjacent 
provinces,  ravaged  by  frequent  excursions,  they  marched 
farther  from  home,  and,  finding  it  difficult  or  dangerous 
to  return,  they  began  to  settle  in  the  countries  which 
they  had  subdued.  The  sudden  and  short  excursions 
in  quest  of  booty,  which  had  alarmed  and  disquieted 
the  empire,  ceased;  a  more  dreadful  calamity  im- 
pended. Great  bodies  of  armed  men,  with  their  wives 
and  children  and  slaves  and  flocks,  issued  forth,  like 
regular  colonies,  in  quest  of  new  settlements.  People 

3  No*e  III. 


8  A    VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  i. 

who  had  no  cities,  and  seldom  any  fixed  habitation, 
were  so  little  attached  to  their  native  soil  that  they 
migrated  without  reluctance  from  one  place  to  another. 
New  adventurers  followed  them.  The  lands  which  they 
deserted  were  occupied  by  more  remote  tribes  of  bar- 
barians. These,  in  their  turn,  pushed  forward  into 
more  fertile  countries,  and,  like  a  torrent  continually 
increasing,  rolled  on,  and  swept  every  thing  before 
them.  In  less  than  two  centuries  from  their  first  irrup- 
tion, barbarians  of  various  names  and  lineage  plundered 
and  took  possession  of  Thrace,  Pannonia,  Gaul,  Spain, 
Africa,  and  at  last  of  Italy,  and  Rome  itself.  The  vast 
fabric  of  the  Roman  power,  which  it  had  been  the  work 
of  ages  to  perfect,  was  in  that  short  period  overturned 
from  the  foundation. 

Many  concurring  causes  prepared  the  way  for  this 
great  revolution,  and  insured  success  to  the  nations 
which  invaded  the  empire.  The  Roman  commonwealth 
had  conquered  the  world  by  the  wisdom  of  its  civil 
maxims  and  the  rigour  of  its  military  discipline.  But 
under  the  emperors  the  former  were  forgotten  or  de- 
spised, and  the  latter  was  gradually  relaxed.  The 
armies  of  the  empire  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries 
bore  scarcely  any  resemblance  to  those  invincible  legions 
which  had  been  victorious  wherever  they  marched.  In- 
stead of  freemen  who  voluntarily  took  arms  from  the 
love  of  glory  or  of  their  country,  provincials  and  bar- 
barians were  bribed  or  forced  into  service.  These  were 
too  feeble,  or  too  proud,  to  submit  to  the  fatigue  of 
military  duty.  They  even  complained  of  the  weight  of 
their  defensive  armour  as  intolerable,  and  laid  it  aside. 
Infantry,  from  which  the  armies  of  ancient  Rome  de- 
rived their  vigour  and  stability,  fell  into  contempt ;  the 
effeminate  and  undisciplined  soldiers  of  later  times  could 
hardly  be  brought  to  venture  into  the  field  but  on  horse- 
back. These  wretched  troops,  however,  were  the  only. 


SUCTION  i.J  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  9 

guardians  of  the  empire.  The  jealousy  of  despotism  had 
deprived  the  people  of  the  use  of  arms ;  and  subjects 
oppressed  and  rendered  incapable  of  defending  them- 
selves had  neither  spirit  nor  inclination  to  resist  their 
invaders,  from  whom  they  had  little  to  fear,  because 
their  condition  could  hardly  be  rendered  more  unhappy. 
At  the  same  time  that  the  martial  spirit  became  extinct, 
the  revenues  of  the  empire  gradually  diminished.  The 
taste  for  the  luxuries  of  the  East  increased  to  such  a 
pitch  in  the  imperial  court  that  great  sums  were  carried 
into  India,  from  which,  in  the  channel  of  commerce, 
money  never  returns.  By  the  large  subsidies  paid  to 
the  barbarous  nations,  a  still  greater  quantity  of  specie 
was  withdrawn  from  circulation.  The  frontier  provinces, 
wasted  by  frequent  incursions,  became  unable  to  pay  the 
customary  tribute ;  and  the  wealth  of  the  world,  which 
had  long  centred  in  the  capital  of  the  empire,  ceased  to 
flow  thither  in  the  same  abundance,  or  was  diverted  into 
other  channels.  The  limits  of  the  empire  continued  to 
be  as  extensive  as  ever,  while  the  spirit  requisite  for  its 
defence  declined,  and  its  resources  were  exhausted.  A 
vast  body,  languid  and  almost  unanimated,  became  in- 
capable of  any  effort  to  save  itself,  and  was  easily  over- 
powered. The  emperors,  who  had  the  absolute  direction 
of  this  disordered  system,  sunk  in  the  softness  of  Eastern 
luxury,  shut  up  within  the  walls  of  a  palace,  ignorant  of 
war,  unacquainted  with  affairs,  and  governed  entirely 
by  women  and  eunuchs,  or  by  ministers  equally  effemi- 
nate, trembled  at  the  approach  of  danger,  and,  under 
circumstances  which  called  for  the  utmost  vigour  in 
council  as  well  as  in  action,  discovered  all  the  impotent 
irresolution  of  fear  and  of  folly. 

In  every  respect  the  condition  of  the  barbarous  nations 
was  the  reverse  of  that  of  the  Romans.  Among  the 
former  the  martial  spirit  was  in  full  vigour;  their 
leaders  were  hardy  and  enterprising ;  the  arts  which 


10  A    VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  i. 

had  enervated  the  Romans  were  unknown;  and  such 
was  the  nature  of  their  military  institutions  that  they 
brought  forces  into  the  field  without  any  trouble,  and 
supported  them  at  little  expense.  The  mercenary  and 
effeminate  troops  stationed  on  the  frontier,  astonished  at 
their  fierceness,  either  fled  at  their  approach  or  were 
routed  on  the  first  onset.  The  feeble  expedient  to 
which  the  emperors  had  recourse,  of  taking  large  bodies 
of  the  barbarians  into  pay  and  of  employing  them  to 
repel  new  invaders,  instead  of  retarding,  hastened  the  de- 
struction of  the  empire.  These  mercenaries  soon  turned 
their  arms  against  their  masters,  and  with  greater  advan- 
tage than  ever ;  for  by  serving  in  the  Eoman  armies  they 
had  acquired  all  the  discipline,  or  skill  in  war,  which  the 
Romans  still  retained ;  and  upon  adding  these  to  their 
native  ferocity  they  became  altogether  irresistible. 

But  though,  from  these  and  many  other  causes,  the 
progress  and  conquests  of  the  nations  which  overran 
the  empire  became  so  extremely  rapid,  they  were  accom- 
panied with  horrible  devastations  and  an  incredible 
destruction  of  the  human  species.  Civilized  nations, 
which  take  arms  upon  cool  reflection,  from  motives  of 
policy  or  prudence,  with  a  view  to  guard  against  some 
distant  danger  or  to  prevent  some  remote  contingency, 
carry  on  their  hostilities  with  so  little  rancour  or  animo- 
sity that  war  among  them  is  disarmed  of  half  its  terrors. 
Barbarians  are  strangers  to  such  refinements.  They 
rush  into  war  with  impetuosity  and  prosecute  it  with 
violence.  Their  sole  object  is  to  make  their  enemies 
feel  the  weight  of  their  vengeance  ;  nor  does  their  rage 
subside  until  it  be  satiated  with  inflicting  on  them  every 
possible  calamity.  It  is  with  such  a  spirit  that  the 
savage  tribes  in  America  carry  on  their  petty  wars.  It 
was  with  the  same  spirit  that  the  more  powerful  and  no 
less  fierce  barbarians  in  the  north  of  Europe  and  of  Asia 
fell  upon  the  Roman  empire. 


SECTION  i.]  STATE  OF  EUROPE.  11 

Wherever  they  marched,  their  route  was  marked  with 
blood.  They  ravaged  or  destroyed  all  around  them. 
They  made  no  distinction  between  what  was  sacred  and 
what  was  profane.  They  respected  no  age,  or  sex,  or 
rank.  What  escaped  the  fury  of  the  first  inundation 
perished  in  those  which  followed  it.  The  most  fertile 
and  populous  provinces  were  converted  into  deserts,  in 
which  were  scattered  the  ruins  of  villages  and  cities  that 
afforded  shelter  to  a  few  miserable  inhabitants  whom 
chance  had  preserved,  or  the  sword  of  the  enemy, 
wearied  with  destroying,  had  spared.  The  conquerors 
who  first  settled  in  the  countries  which  they  had  wasted 
were  expelled  or  exterminated  by  new  invaders,  who, 
coming  from  regions  farther  removed  from  the  civilized 
parts  of  the  world,  were  still  more  fierce  and  rapacious. 
This  brought  fresh  calamities  upon  mankind,  which  did 
not  cease  until  the  North,  by  pouring  forth  successive 
swarms,  was  drained  of  people  and  could  no  longer 
furnish  instruments  of  destruction.  Famine  and  pesti- 
lence, which  always  march  in  the  train  of  war  when  it 
ravages  with  such  inconsiderate  cruelty,  raged  in  every 
part  of  Europe  and  completed  its  sufferings.  If  a  man 
were  called  to  fix  upon  the  period  in  the  history  of  the 
world  during  which  the  condition  of  the  human  race 
was  most  calamitous  and  afflicted,  he  would  without 
hesitation  name  that  which  elapsed  from  the  death  of 
Theodosius  the  Great  to  the  establishment  of  the  Lom- 
bards in  Italy.4  The  contemporary  authors  who  beheld 
that  scene  of  desolation  labour  and  are  at  a  loss  for  ex- 
pressions to  describe  the  horror  of  it.  The  scourge  of 
God,  The  destroyer  of  nations,  are  the  dreadful  epithets 
by  which  they  distinguish  the  most  noted  of  the  bar- 
barous leaders ;  and  they  compare  the  ruin  which  they 

4  Theodosius  died  A.D.  395  ;  the      was  one  hundred  and   seventy-six 
reign  of  Alboinus  in  Lombardy  be-      years, 
gan  A.D.   571  :  so  that  this  period 


1*2  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  f. 

had  brought  on  the  world  to  the  havoc  occasioned  by 
earthquakes,  conflagrations,  or  deluges,  the  most  formid- 
able and  fatal  calamities  which  the  imagination  of  man 
can  conceive. 

But  no  expressions  can  convey  so  perfect  an  idea  of 
the  destructive  progress  of  the  barbarians  as  that  which 
must  strike  an  attentive  observer  when  he  contemplates 
the  total  change  which  he  will  discover  in  the  state  of 
Europe  after  it  began  to  recover  some  degree  of  tran- 
quillity, towards  the  close  of  the  sixth  century.  The 
Saxons  were  by  that  time  masters  of  the  southern  and 
more  fertile  provinces  of  Britain ;  the  Franks,  of  Gaul ; 
the  Huns,  of  Pannonia ;  the  Goths,  of  Spain ;  the 
Goths  and  Lombards,  of  Italy  and  the  adjacent  pro- 
vinces. Very  faint  vestiges  of  the  Eoman  policy,  juris- 
prudence, arts,  or  literature  remained.  New  forms  of 
government,  new  laws,  new  manners,  new  dresses,  new 
languages,  and  new  names  of  men  and  countries  were 
everywhere  introduced.  To  make  a  great  or  sudden 
alteration  with  respect  to  any  of  these,  unless  where 
the  ancient  inhabitants  of  a  country  have  been  almost 
totally  exterminated,  has  proved  an  undertaking  beyond 
the  power  of  the  greatest  conquerors.5  The  great  change 
which  the  settlement  of  the  barbarous  nations  occa- 
sioned in  the  state  of  Europe  may,  therefore,  be  con- 
sidered as  a  more  decisive  proof,  than  even  the  testi- 
mony of  contemporary  historians,  of  the  destructive 
violence  with  which  these  invaders  carried  on  their 
conquests,  and  of  the  havoc  which  they  had  made 
from  one  extremity  of  this  quarter  of  the  globe  to  the 
other.6 

In    the    obscurity  of   the    chaos  occasioned  by   this 

general  wreck  of  nations,  we  must  search  for  the  seeds 

of  order,  and  endeavour  to  discover  the  first  rudiments 

of  the  policy  and  laws  now  established  in  Europe.     To 

6  Note  IV.  6  Note  V. 


SECTION  I.]  STATE    OP    EUEOPE.  13 

this  source  the  historians  of  its  different  kingdoms  have 
attempted,  though  with  less  attention  and  industry  than 
the  importance  of  the  inquiry  merits,  to  trace  back  the 
institutions  and  customs  peculiar  to  their  countrymen. 
It  is  not  my  province  to  give  a  minute  detail  of  the 
progress  of  government  and  manners  in  each  particular 
nation  whose  transactions  are  the  object  of  the  follow- 
ing history.  But  in  order  to  exhibit  a  just  view  of  the 
state  of  Europe  at  the  opening  of  the  sixteenth  century 
it  is  necessary  to  look  back,  and  to  contemplate  the 
condition  of  the  Northern  nations  upon  their  first  settle- 
ment in  those  countries  which  they  occupied.  It  is 
necessary  to  mark  the  great  steps  by  which  they  ad- 
vanced from  barbarism  to  refinement,  and  to  point  out 
those  general  principles  and  events  which,  by  their 
uniform  as  well  as  extensive  operation,  conducted  all 
of  them  to  that  degree  of  improvement  in  policy  and 
in  manners -which  they  had  attained  at  the  period  when 
Charles  Y.  began  his  reign. 

When  nations  subject  to  despotic  government  make 
conquests,  these  serve  only  to  extend  the  dominion  and 
the  power  of  their  master.  But  armies  composed  of 
freemen  conquer  for  themselves,  not  for  their  leaders. 
The  people  who  overturned  the  Eoman  empire  and 
settled  in  its  various  provinces  were  of  the  latter  class. 
Not  only  the  different  nations  that  issued  from  the  north 
of  Europe,  which  has  always  been  considered  as  the 
seat  of  liberty,  but  the  Huns  and  Alans,  who  inhabited 
part  of  those  countries  which  have  been  marked  out 
as  the  peculiar  region  of  servitude,7  enjoyed  freedom 
and  independence  in  such  a  high  degree  as  seems  to 
be  scarcely  compatible  with  a  state  of  social  union  or 
with  the  subordination  necessary  to  maintain  it.  They 
followed  the  chieftain  who  led  them  forth  in  quest  of 
new  settlements,  not  by  constraint,  but  from  choice  j 

?  De  1'Esprit  des  Loix,  liv.  xvii.  ch.  3. 


14  A   VIEW    OP    THE  [SECTION  i. 

not  as  soldiers  whom  he  could  order  to  march,  but  as 
volunteers  who  offered  to  accompany  him.8  They  con- 
sidered their  conquests  as  a  common  property,  in  which 
all  had  a  title  to  share,  as  all  had  contributed  to  acquire 
them.9  In  what  manner  or  by  what  principles  they 
divided  among  them  the  lands  which  they  seized,  we 
cannot  now  determine  with  any  certainty.  There  is  no 
nation  in  Europe  whose  records  reach  back  to  this  remote 
period ;  and  there  is  little  information  to  be  got  from 
uninstructive  and  meagre  chronicles,  compiled  by  writers 
ignorant  of  the  true  end  and  unacquainted  with  the 
proper  objects  of  history. 

This  new  division  of  property,  however,  together  with 
the  maxims  and  manners  to  which  it  gave  rise,  gradually 
introduced  a  species  of  government  formerly  unknown. 
This  singular  institution  is  now  distinguished  by  the 
name  of  the  feudal  system ;  and  though  the  barbarous 
nations  which  framed  it  settled  in  their  new  territories 
at  different  times,  came  from  different  countries,  spoke 
various  languages,  and  were  under  the  command  of 
separate  leaders,  the  feudal  policy  and  laws  were  estab- 
lished, with  little  variation,  in  every  kingdom  of  Europe. 
This  amazing  uniformity  hath  induced  some  authors 10 
to  believe  that  all  these  nations,  notwithstanding  so 
many  apparent  circumstances  of  distinction,  were  ori- 
ginally the  same  people.  But  it  may  be  ascribed  with 
greater  probability  to  the  similar  state  of  society  and 
of  manners  to  which  they  were  accustomed  in  their 
native  countries,  and  to  the  similar  situation  in  which 
they  found  themselves  on  taking  possession  of  their  new 
domains. 

As  the  conquerors  of  Europe  had  their  acquisitions  to 
maintain,  not  only  against  such  of  the  ancient  inhabit- 

8  Note  VI.  Script.    Byz.,    edit.    Ven.,    voL    i 

9  Note  VII.  p.  345. 
"  Procop.  de  Bello  Vandal.,  ap. 


SECTION  i.l  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  15 

ants  as  they  had  spared,  but  against  the  more  formidable 
inroads  of  new  invaders,  self-defence  was  their  chief 
care,  and  seems  to  have  been  the  chief  object  of  their 
first  institutions  and  policy.  Instead  of  those  loose 
associations  which,  though  they  scarcely  diminished 
their  personal  independence,  had  been  sufficient  for  their 
security  while  they  remained  in  their  original  countries, 
they  saw  the  necessity  of  uniting .  in  more  close  con- 
federacy, and  of  relinquishing  some  of  their  private 
rights  in  order  to  attain  public  safety.  Every  freeman, 
upon  receiving  a  portion  of  the  lands  which  were  divided, 
bound  himself  to  appear  in  arms  against  the  enemies  of 
the  community.  This  military  service  was  the  condition 
upon  which  he  received  and  held  his  lands ;  and,  as  they 
were  exempted  from  every  other  burden,  that  tenure, 
among  a  warlike  people,  was  deemed  both  easy  and 
honourable.  The  king  01  general  who  led  them  to  con- 
quest, continuing  still  to  Le  the  head  of  the  colony,  had, 
of  course,  the  largest  portion  allotted  to  him.  Having 
thus  acquired  the  meaLo  of  rewarding  past  services,  as 
well  as  of  gaining  new  adherents,  he  parcelled  out  his 
lands  with  this  view,  binding  those  on  whom  they  were 
bestowed  to  resort  to  his  standard  with  a  number  of  men 
in  proportion  to  the  extent  of  the  territory  which  they 
received,  and  to  bear  arms  in  his  defence.  His  chief 
officers  imitated  the  example  of  the  sovereign,  and,  in 
distributing  portions  of  their  lands  among  their  depend- 
ants, annexed  the  same  condition  to  the  grant.  Thus 
a  feudal  kingdom  resembled  a  military  establishment 
rather  than  a  civil  institution.  The  victorious  army, 
cantoned  out  in  the  country  which  it  had  seized,  con- 
tinued ranged  under  its  proper  officers  and  subordinate 
to  military  command.  The  names  of  a  soldier  and  of  a 
freeman  were  synonymous.11  Every  proprietor  of  land, 
girt  with  a  sword,  was  ready  to  march  at  the  summons 

11  Du  Cange,  Glossar.,  voc.  Miles. 


16  A    VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  i. 

of  his  superior  and  to  take  the  field  against  the  common 
enemy. 

But  though  the  feudal  policy  seems  to  be  so  admirably 
calculated  for  defence  against  the  assaults  of  any  foreign 
power,  its  provisions  for  the  interior  order  and  tran- 
quillity of  society  were  extremely  defective.  The  prin- 
ciples of  disorder  and  corruption  are  discernible  in  that 
constitution  under  its  best  and  most  perfect  form.  They 
soon  unfolded  themselves,  and,  spreading  with  rapidity 
through  every  part  of  the  system,  produced  the  most 
fatal  effects.  The  bond  of  political  union  was  extremely 
feeble  ;  the  sources  of  anarchy  were  innumerable.  The 
monarchical  and  aristocratieal  parts  of  the  constitution, 
having  no  intermediate  power  to  balance  them,  were 
perpetually  at  variance  and  justling  with  each  other. 
The  powerful  vassals  of  the  crown  soon  extorted  a  con- 
firmation for  life  of  those  grants  of  land  which,  being 
at  first  purely  gratuitous,  had  been  bestowed  only  during 
pleasure.  Not  satisfied  with  this,  they  prevailed  to  have 
them  converted  into  hereditary  possessions.  One  step 
more  completed  their  usurpations,  and  rendered  them 
unalienable.12  With  an  ambition  no  less  enterprising, 
and  more  preposterous,  they  appropriated  to  themselves 
titles  of  honour,  as  well  as  offices  of  power  or  trust. 
These  personal  marks  of  distinction,  which  the  public 
admiration  bestows  on  illustrious  merit,  or  which  the 
public  confidence  confers  on  extraordinary  abilities,  were 
annexed  to  certain  families,  and  transmitted  like  fiefs, 
from  father  to  son,  by  hereditary  right.  The  crown 
vassals  having  thus  secured  the  possession  of  their  lands 
and  dignities,  the  nature  of  the  feudal  institutions,  which, 
though  founded  on  subordination,  verged  to  independ- 
ence, led  them  to  new  and  still  more  dangerous  encroach- 
ments on  the  prerogatives  of  the  sovereign.  They 
obtained  the  power  of  supreme  jurisdiction,  both  civil 

»2  Note  VIII. 


i.j  STATE    OF    EUEOPE.  17 

and  criminal,  within  their  own  territories ;  the  right  of 
coining  money ;  together  with  the  privilege  of  carrying 
on  war  against  their  private  enemies  in  their  own  name 
and  by  their  own  authority.  The  ideas  of  political  sub- 
jection were  almost  entirely  lost,  and  frequently  scarce 
any  appearance  of  feudal  subordination  remained.  Nobles 
who  had  acquired  such  enormous  power  scorned  to  con- 
sider themselves  as  subjects.  They  aspired  openly  at 
being  independent;  the  bonds  which  connected  the 
principal  members  of  the  constitution  with  the  crown 
were  dissolved.  A  kingdom  considerable  in  name  and 
in  extent  was  broken  into  as  many  separate  principalities 
as  it  contained  powerful  barons.  A  thousand  causes  of 
jealousy  and  discord  subsisted  among  them,  and  gave  rise 
to  as  many  wars.  Every  country  in  Europe,  wasted  or 
kept  in  continual  alarm  during  these  endless  contests, 
was  filled  with  castles  and  places  of  strength  erected  for 
the  security  of  the  inhabitants,  not  against  foreign  force, 
but  against  internal  hostilities.  A  universal  anarchy, 
destructive  in  a  great  measure  of  all  the  advantages 
which  men  expect  to  derive  from  society,  prevailed. 
The  people,  the  most  numerous  as  well  as  the  most 
useful  part  of  the  community,  were  either  reduced  to 
a  state  of  actual  servitude,  or  treated  with  the  same 
insolence  and  rigour  as  if  they  had  been  degraded  into 
that  wretched  condition.13  The  king,  stripped  «f  almost 
every  prerogative,  and  without  authority  to  enact  or  to 
execute  salutary  laws,  could  neither  protect  the  inno- 
cent nor  punish  the  guilty.  The  nobles,  superior  to  all 
restraint,  harassed  each  other  with  perpetual  wars,  op- 
pressed their  fellow-subjects,  and  humbled  or  insulted 
their  sovereign.  To  crown  all,  time  gradually  fixed 
and  rendered  venerable  this  pernicious  system,  which 
violence  had  established. 

Such  was  the    state   of   Europe  with  respect  to  the 

u  Note  IX. 
vui.  L  O 


18  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  T. 

interior  administration  of  government  from  the  seventh 
to  the  eleventh  century.  All  the  external  operations 
of  its  various  states  during  this  period  were,  of  course, 
extremely  feeble.  A  kingdom  dismembered,  and  torn 
with  dissension,  without  any  common  interest  to  rouse 
or  any  common  head  to  conduct  its  force,  was  incapable 
of  acting  with  vigour.  Almost  all  the  wars  in  Europe 
during  the  ages  which  I  have  mentioned  were  trifling, 
indecisive,  and  productive  of  no  considerable  event. 
They  resembled  the  short  incursions  of  pirates  or  ban- 
ditti, rather  than  the  steady  operations  of  a  regular 
army.  Every  baron,  at  the  head  of  his  vassals,  carried 
on  some  petty  enterprise  to  which  he  was  prompted  by 
his  own  ambition  or  revenge.  The  state  itself,  destitute 
of  u'rion,  either  remained  altogether  inactive,  or,  if  it 
attempted  to  make  any  effort,  that  served  only  to  dis- 
cover its  impotence.  The  superior  genius  of  Charle- 
magne, it  is  true,  united  all  these  disjointed  and  dis- 
cordant members,  and  formed  them  again  into  one  body, 
restored  to  government  that  degree  of  activity  which 
distinguishes  his  reign  and  renders  the  transactions  of 
it  objects  not  only  of  attention,  but  of  admiration,  to 
more  enlightened  times.  But  this  state  of  union  and 
vigour,  not  being  natural  to  the  feudal  government, 
was  of  short  duration.  Immediately  upon  his  death, 
the  spirit  which  animated  and  sustained  the  vast  system 
which  he  had  established  being  withdrawn,  it  broke 
into  pieces.  All  the  calamities  which  flow  from  anarchy 
and  discord,  returning  with  additional  force,  afflicted 
the  different  kingdoms  into  which  his  empire  was  split. 
From  that  time  to  the  eleventh  century,  a  succession 
of  uninteresting  events,  a  series  of  wars  the  motives 
as  well  as  the  consequences  of  which  were  unimportant, 
fill  and  deform  the  annals  of  all  the  nations  in  Europe. 

To  these  pernicious  effects  of  the  feudal  anarchy  may 
be  added  its  fatal   influence  on  the  character  and  im- 


SECTION  i.J  STATE    OF    EUBOPE.  19 

provement  of  the  human  mind.  If  men  do  not  enjoy 
the  protection  of  regular  government,  together  with  the 
expectation  of  personal  security,  which  naturally  flows 
from  it,  they  never  attempt  to  make  progress  in  science, 
nor  aim  at  attaining  refinement  in  taste  or  in  manners. 
That  period  of  turbulence,  oppression,  and  rapine  which 
I  have  described  was  ill  suited  to  favour  improvement 
in  any  of  these.  In  less  than  a  century  after  the  bar- 
barous nations  settled  in  their  new  conquests,  almost  all 
the  effects  of  the  knowledge  and  civility  which  the 
Romans  had  spread  through  Europe  disappeared. 
Not  only  the  arts  of  elegance,  which  minister  to  luxury 
and  are  supported  by  it,  but  many  of  the  useful  arts, 
without  which  life  can  scarcely  be  considered  as  com- 
fortable, were  neglected  or  lost.  Literature,  science, 
taste,  were  words  little  in  use  during  the  ages  which 
we  are  contemplating ;  or,  if  they  occur  at  any  time, 
eminence  in  them  is  ascribed  to  persons  and  productions 
so  contemptible  that  it  appears  their  true  import  was 
little  understood.  Persons  of  the  highest  rank  and  in 
the  most  eminent  stations  could  not  read  or  write. 
Many  of  the  clergy  did  not  understand  the  breviary 
which  they  were  obliged  daily  to  recite ;  some  of  them 
could  scarcely  read  it.14  The  memory  of  past  transac- 
tions was  in  a  great  degree  lost,  or  preserved  in  annals 
filled  with  trifling  events  or  legendary  tales.  Even  the 
codes  of  laws  published  by  the  several  nations  which 
established  themselves  in  the  different  countries  of 
Europe  fell  into  disuse,  while  in  their  place  customs 
vague  and  capricious  were  substituted.  The  human 
mind,  neglected,  uncultivated,  and  depressed,  continued 
in  the  most  profound  ignorance.  Europe,  during  four 
centuries,  produced  few  authors  who  merit  to  be  read, 
either  on  account  of  the  elegance  of  their  composition 
or  the  justness  and  novelty  of  their  sentiments.  There 

14  Note  X. 

o  a 


20  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  I. 

are  few  inventions  useful  or  ornamental  to  society  of 
which  that  long  period  can  boast. 

Even  the  Christian  religion,  though  its  precepts  are 
delivered,  and  its  institutions  are  fixed  in  Scripture, 
with  a  precision  which  should  have  exempted  them 
from  being  misinterpreted  or  corrupted,  degenerated, 
during  those  ages  of  darkness,  into  an  illiberal  super- 
stition. The  barbarous  nations,  when  converted  to 
Christianity,  changed  the  object,  not  the  spirit,  of  their 
religious  worship.  They  endeavoured  to  conciliate  the 
favour  of  the  true  God  by  means  not  unlike  to  those 
which  they  had  employed  in  order  to  appease  their 
false  deities.  Instead  of  aspiring  to  sanctity  and  virtue, 
which  alone  can  render  men  acceptable  to  the  great 
Author  of  order  and  of  excellence,  they  imagined  that 
they  satisfied  every  obligation  of  duty  by  a  scrupulous 
observance  of  external  ceremonies.15  Religion,  accord- 
ing to  their  conceptions  of  it,  comprehended  nothing 
else-;  and  the  rites  by  which  they  persuaded  themselves 
that  they  could  gain  the  favour  of  Heaven  were  of  such 
a  nature  as  might  have  been  expected  from  the  rude 
ideas  of  the  ages  which  devised  and  introduced  them. 
They  were  either  so  unmeaning  as  to  be  altogether 
unworthy  of  the  Being  to  whose  honour  they  were 
consecrated,  or  so  absurd  as  to  be  a  disgrace  to  reason 
and  humanity.16  Charlemagne  in  France,  and  Alfred 
the  Great  in  England,  endeavoured  to  dispel  this  dark- 
ness, and  gave  their  subjects  a  short  glimpse  of  light 
and  knowledge.  But  the  ignorance  of  the  age  was  too 
powerful  for  their  efforts  and  institutions.  The  darkness 
returned,  and  settled  over  Europe  more  thick  and  heavy 
than  before. 

As  the  inhabitants  of  Europe  during  these  centuries 
were  strangers  to  the  arts  which  embellish  a  polished 
age,  they  were  destitute  of  the  virtues  which  abound 
"  Note  XL  16  Note  XIL 


SECTION  i.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  21 

among  people  who  continue  in  a  simple  state.  Force 
of  mind,  a  sense  of  personal  dignity,  gallantry  in  enter- 
prise, invincible  perseverance  in  execution,  contempt  of 
danger  and  of  death,  are  the  characteristic  virtues  of 
uncivilized  nations.  But  these  are  all  the  offspring  of 
equality  and  independence,  both  which  the  feudal 
institutions  had  destroyed.  The  spirit  of  domination 
corrupted  the  nobles,  the  yoke  of  servitude  depressed 
the  people,  the  generous  sentiments  inspired  by  a  sense 
of  equality  were  extinguished,  and  hardly  any  thing 
remained  to  be  a  check  on  ferocity  and  violence. 
Human  society  is  in  its  most  corrupted  state  at  that 
period  when  men  have  lost  their  original  independence 
and  simplicity  of  manners,  but  have  not  attained  that 
degree  of  refinement  which  introduces  a  sense  of  de- 
corum and  of  propriety  in  conduct,  as  a  restraint  on 
those  passions  which  lead  to  heinous  crimes.  Accord- 
ingly, a  greater  number  of  those  atrocious  actions 
which  fill  the  mind  of  man  with  astonishment  and 
horror  occur  in  the  history  of  the  centuries  under 
review  than  in  that  of  any  period  of  the  same  extent 
in  the  annals  of  Europe.  If  we  open  the  history  of 
Gregory  of  Tours,  or  of  any  contemporary  author, 
we  meet  with  a  series  of  deeds  of  cruelty,  perfidy,  and 
revenge  so  wild  and  enormous  as  almost  to  exceed 
belief. 

But,  according  to  the  observation  of  an  elegant  and 
profound  historian,17  there  is  an  ultimate  point  of  de- 
pression, as  well  as  of  exaltation,  from  which  human 
affairs  naturally  return  in  a  contrary  progress,  and 
beyond  which  they  never  pass  either  in  their  advance- 
ment or  decline.  When  defects  either  in  the  form  or 

• 

in  the  administration  of  government  occasion  such 
disorders  in  society  as  are  excessive  and  intolerable,  it 
becomes  the  common  interest  to  discover  and  to  apply 

17  Hume's  History  of  England,  vol.  ii.  p.  441. 


22  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  I. 

such  remedies  as  will  most  effectually  remove  them. 
Slight  inconveniences  may  be  long  overlooked  or  en- 
dured; but  when  abuses  grow  to  a  certain  pitch  the 
society  must  go  to  ruin  or  must  attempt  to  reform 
them.  The  disorders  in  the  feudal  system,  together 
with  the  corruption  of  taste  and  manners  consequent 
upon  these,  which  had  gone  on  increasing  during  a 
long  course  of  years,  seemed  to  have  attained  their 
utmost  point  of  excess  towards  the  close  of  the  eleventh 
century.  From  that  era  we  may  date  the  return  of 
government  and  manners  in  a  contrary  direction,  and 
can  trace  a  succession  of  causes  and  events  which  con- 
tributed, some  with  a  nearer  and  more  conspicuous, 
others  with  a  more  remote  and  less  perceptible  influence, 
to  abolish  confusion  and  barbarism,  and  to  introduce 
order,  regularity,  and  refinement. 

In  pointing  out  and  explaining  these  causes  and 
events,  it  is  not  necessary  to  observe  the  order  of  time 
with  a  chronological  accuracy  :  it  is  of  more  import- 
ance to  keep  in  view  their  mutual  connection  and 
dependence,  and  to  show  how  the  operation  of  one 
event  or  one  cause  prepared  the  way  for  another  and 
augmented  its  influence.  We  have  hitherto  been  con- 
templating the  progress  of  that  darkness  which  spread 
over  Europe,  from  its  first  approach,  to  the  period  of 
greatest  obscuration :  a  more  pleasant  exercise  begins 
here ;  to  observe  the  first  dawnings  of  returning  light, 
to  mark  the  various  accessions  by  which  it  gradually 
increased  and  advanced  towards  the  full  splendour  of 
day. 

I.  The  crusades,  or  expeditions  in  order  to  rescue 
the  Holy  Land  out  of  the  hands  of  infidels,  seemejl  to 
be  the  first  event  that  roused  Europe  from  the  lethargy 
in  which  it  had  been  long  sunk,  and  that  tended  to 
introduce  any  considerable  change  in  government  or  in 
manners.  It  is  natural  to  the  human  mind  to  view 


SECTION  i.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  23 

those  places  which  have  been  distinguished  by  being 
the  residence  of  any  illustrious  personage,  or  the  scene 
of  any  great  transaction,  with  some  degree  of  delight 
and  veneration.  To  this  principle  must  be  ascribed 
the  superstitious  devotion  with  which  Christians,  from 
the  earliest  ages  of  the  Church,  were'  accustomed  to 
visit  that  country  which  the  Almighty  had  selected  as 
the  inheritance  of  his  favourite  people,  and  in  which 
the  Son  of  God  had  accomplished  the  redemption  of 
mankind.  As  this  distant  pilgrimage  could  not  be 
performed  without  considerable  expense,  fatigue,  and 
danger,  it  appeared  the  more  meritorious,  and  came  to 
be  considered  as  an  expiation  for  almost  every  crime. 
An  opinion  which  spread  with  rapidity  over  Europe 
about  the  close  of  the  tenth  and  beginning  of  the 
eleventh  century,  and  which  gained  universal  credit, 
wonderfully  augmented  the  number  of  credulous  pil- 
grims, and  increased  the  ardour  with  which  they  under- 
took this  useless  voyage.  The  thousand  years  mentioned 
by  St.  John18  were  supposed  to  be  accomplished,  and 
the  end  of  the  world  to  be  at  hand.  A  general  con- 
sternation seized  mankind ;  many  relinquished  their 
possessions,  and,  abandoning  their  friends  and  families, 
]  lurried  with  precipitation  to  the  Holy  Land,  where 
they  imagined  that  Christ  would  quickly  appear  to 
judge  the  world.19  While  Palestine  continued  subject 
to  the  Caliphs,  they  had  encouraged  the  resort  of  pil- 
grims to  Jerusalem,  and  considered  this  as  a  beneficial 
species  of  commerce,  which  brought  into  their  domi- 
nions gold  and  silver  and  carried  out  of  them  but  relics 
and  consecrated  trinkets.  But  the  Turks  having  con- 
quered Syria  about  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century, 

1S  Rev.  xx.  2,  3,  4.  Abonis,  ibid.,  p.  332.— Chronic.  S. 

19  Chronic.  Will.  Godelli,  ap.  Pantaleonis,  ap.  Eccard.  Corp.  Scrip. 

Bouquet,  llecueil  des  Historiens  de  Medii  JEvi,  vol.  i.  p.  909. — Anna- 

France,  torn.  x.  p.  262. — Vita.  lista  Saxo,  ibid.,  p.  576. 


24  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  i. 

pilgrims  were  exposed  to  outrages  of  every  kind  from 
these  fierce  barbarians.20  This  change,  happening  pre- 
cisely at  the  juncture  when  the  panic  terror  which  I 
have  mentioned  rendered  pilgrimages  most  frequent, 
filled  Europe  with  alarm  and  indignation.  Every  per- 
son who  returned  from  Palestine  related  the  dangers 
which  he  had  encountered  in  visiting  the  holy  city,  and 
described  with  exaggeration  the  cruelty  and  vexations 
of  the  Turks. 

When  the  minds  of  men  were  thus  prepared,  the 
zeal  of  a  fanatical  monk,  who  conceived  the  idea  of 
leading  all  the  forces  of  Christendom  against  the  in- 
fidels, and  of  driving  them  out  of  the  Holy  Land  by 
violence,  was  sufficient  to  give  a  beginning  to  that  wild 
enterprise.  Peter  the  Hermit,  for  that  was  the  name 
of  this  martial  apostle,  ran  from  province  to  province 
with  a  crucifix  in  his  hand,  exciting  princes  and  people 
to  this  holy  war,  and  wherever  he  came  kindled  the 
same  enthusiastic  ardour  for  it  with  which  he  himself 
was  animated.  The  Council  of  Placentia,  where  up- 
wards of  thirty  thousand  persons  were  assembled,  pro- 
nounced the  scheme  to  have  been  suggested  by  the 
immediate  inspiration  of  Heaven.  In  the  Council  of 
Clermont,  still  more  numerous,  as  soon  as  the  measure 
was  proposed,  all  cried  out  with  one  voice,  "It  is  the 
will  of  God."  Persons  of  all  ranks  catched  the  con- 
tagion ;  not  only  the  gallant  nobles  of  that  age,  with 
their  martial  followers,  whom  we  may  suppose  apt  to 
be  allured  by  the  boldness  of  a  romantic  enterprise, 
but  men  in  the  more  humble  and  pacific  stations  of 
life,  ecclesiastics  of  every  order,  and  even  women  and 
children,  engaged  with  emulation  in  an  undertaking 
which  was  deemed  sacred  and  meritorious.  If  we  may 
believe  the  concurring  testimony  of  contemporary 

i0  Jo.  Dan.  Schoepflini  de  sacris      tionibus,  p.  4,  Argent.,  1726,  4to. 
Gallorum     in     Orientem     Expedi- 


SECTION  i.l  STATE    OF    EUEOPB.  25 

authors,  six  millions  of  persons  assumed  the  cross,21 
which  was  the  badge  that  distinguished  such  as  devoted 
themselves  to  this  holy  warfare.  All  Europe,  says  the 
princess  Anna  Comnena,  torn  up  from  the  foundation, 
seemed  ready  to  precipitate  itself  in  one  united  body 
upon  Asia.22  Nor  did  the  fumes  of  this  enthusiastic 
zeal  evaporate  at  once ;  the  frenzy  was  as  lasting  as  it 
was  extravagant.  During  two  centuries  Europe  seems 
to  have  had  no  object  but  to  recover,  or  keep  possession 
of,  the  Holy  Land  ;  and  through  that  period  vast  armies 
continued  to  march  thither.23 

The  first  efforts  of  valour,  animated  by  enthusiasm, 
were  irresistible :  part  of  the  lesser  Asia,  all  Syria,  and 
Palestine,  were  wrested  from  the  infidels;  the  banner 
of  the  cross  was  displayed  on  Mount  Sion;  Constanti- 
nople, the  capital  of  the  Christian  empire  in  the  East, 
was  afterwards  seized  by  a  body  of  those  adventurers 
who  had  taken  arms  against  the  Mahometans ;  and  an 
earl  of  Flanders  and  his  descendants  kept  possession 
of  the  imperial  throne  during  half  a  century.  But 
though  the  first  impression  of  the  crusaders  was  so 
unexpected  that  they  made  their  conquests  with  great 
ease,  they  found  infinite  difficulty  in  preserving  them. 
Establishments  so  distant  from  Europe,  surrounded  by 
warlike  nations  animated  with  fanatical  zeal  scarcely 
inferior  to  that  of  the  crusaders  themselves,  were  per- 
petually in  danger  of  being  overturned.  Before  the 
expiration  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  Christians 
were  driven  out  of  all  their  Asiatic  possessions,  in  ac- 
quiring of  which  incredible  numbers  of  men  had  per- 
ished and  immense  sums  of  money  had  been  wasted. 
The  only  common  enterprise  in  which  the  European 
nations  ever  engaged,  and  which  they  all  undertook 

21  Fulcherius     Carnotensis,     ap.  w  Alexias,  lib.  x.,  ap.  Byz.  Script, 

Bcmgarsii    Gesta  Dei  per  Francos,      vol.  xi.  p.  224. 
vol.  i  p.  387,  edit.  Han.,  1611.  a  Note  XIII. 


26  A    VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  i. 

with   equal   ardour,    remains   a  singular  monument  of 
human  folly. 

But  from  these  expeditions,  extravagant  as  they  were, 
beneficial  consequences  followed  which  had  neither 
been  foreseen  nor  expected.  In  their  progress  towards 
the  Holy  Land  the  followers  of  the  cross  marched 
through  countries  better  cultivated  and  more  civilized 
than  their  own.  Their  first  rendezvous  was  commonly 
in  Italy,  in  which  Venice,  Genoa,  Pisa,  and  other  cities 
had  begun  to  apply  themselves  to  commerce,  and  had 
made  considerable  advances  towards  wealth  as  well  as 
refinement.  They  embarked  there,  and,  landing  in 
Dalmatia,  pursued  their  route  by  land  to  Constantinople. 
Though  the  military  spirit  had  been  long  extinct  in  the 
Eastern  empire,  and  a  despotism  of  the  worst  species 
had  annihilated  almost  every  public  virtue,  yet  Con- 
stantinople, having  never  felt  the  destructive  rage  of  the 
barbarous  nations,  was  the  greatest  as  well  as  the  most 
beautiful  city  in  Europe,  and  the  only  one  in  which  there 
remained  any  image  of  the  ancient  elegance  in  manners 
and  arts.  The  naval  power  of  the  Eastern  empire  was 
considerable.  Manufactures  of  the  most  curious  fabric 
were  carried  on  in  its  dominions.  Constantinople  was 
the  chief  mart  in  Europe  for  the  commodities  of  the 
East  Indies.  Although  the  Saracens  and  Turks  had  torn 
from  the  empire  many  of  its  richest  provinces  and  had 
reduced  it  within  very  narrow  bounds,  yet  great  wealth 
flowed  into  the  capital  from  these  various  sources,  which 
not  only  cherished  such  a  taste  for  magnificence,  but 
kept  alive  such  a  relish  for  the  sciences,  as  appears  con- 
siderable when  compared  with  what  was  known  in  other 
parts  of  Europe.  Even  in  Asia,  the  Europeans  who 
had  assumed  the  cross  found  the  remains  of  the  know- 
ledge and  arts  which  .the  example  and  encouragement 
of  the  Caliphs  had  diffused  through  their  empire.  Al- 
though the  attention  of  the  historians  of  the  crusades 


SECTION  i.]  STATE    OF    EUEOPE.  27 

was  fixed  on  other  objects  than  the  state  of  society  and 
manners  among  the  nations  which  they  invaded,  al- 
though most  of  them  had  neither  taste  nor  discernment 
enough  to  describe  these,  they  relate,  however,  such 
signal  acts  of  humanity  and  generosity  in  the  conduct 
of  Saladin,  as  well  as  some  other  leaders  of  the  Maho- 
metans, as  give  us  a  very  high  idea  of  their  manners. 
It  was  not  possible  for  the  crusaders  to  travel  through  so 
many  countries,  and  to  behold  their  various  customs  and 
institutions,  without  acquiring  information  and  improve- 
ment. Their  views  enlarged ;  their  prejudices  wore  off ; 
new  ideas  crowded  into  their  minds ;  and  they  must 
have  been  sensible,  on  many  occasions,  of  the  rusticity 
of  their  own  manners  when  compared  with  those  of  a  ' 
more  polished  people.  These  impressions  were  not  so 
slight  as  to  bo  effaced  upon  their  return  to  their  native 
countries.  A  close  intercourse  subsisted  between  the 
East  and  West  during  two  centuries  ;  new  armies  were 
continually  marching  from  Europe  to  Asia,  while  former 
adventurers  returned  home,  and  imported  many  of  the 
customs  to  which  they  had  been  familiarized  by  a  long 
residence  abroad.  Accordingly,  we  discover,  soon  after 
the  commencement  of  the  crusades,  greater  splendour  in 
the  courts  of  princes,  greater  pomp  in  public  ceremonies, 
a  more  refined  taste  in  pleasure  and  amusements,  together 
with  a  more  romantic  spirit  of  enterprise,  spreading 
gradually  over  Europe ;  and  to  these  wild  expeditions, 
the  effect  of  superstition  or  folly,  we  owe  the  first 
gleams  of  light  which  tended  to  dispel  barbarism  and 
ignorance. 

But  these  beneficial  consequences  of  the  crusades 
took  place  slowly ;  their  influence  upon  the  state  of 
property,  and  consequently  of  power,  in  the  different 
kingdoms  of  Europe,  was  more  immediate,  as  well  as 
discernible.  The  nobles  who  assumed  the  cross  and 
bound  themselves  to  march  to  the  Holy  Land  soon 


28  A    VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  I. 

perceived  that  great  sums  were  necessary  towards  de- 
fraying the  expense  of  such  a  distant  expedition  and 
enabling  them  to  appear  with  suitable  dignity  at  the 
head  of  their  vassals.  But  the  genius  of  the  feudal 
system  was  averse  to  the  imposition  of  extraordinary 
taxes ;  and  subjects  in  that  age  were  unaccustomed  to 
pay  them.  No  expedient  remained  for  levying  the 
sums  requisite,  but  the  sale  of  their  possessions.  As 
men  were  inflamed  with  romantic  expectations  of  the 
splendid  conquests  which  they  hoped  to  make  in  Asia, 
and  possessed  with  such  zeal  for  recovering  the  Holy 
Land  as  swallowed  up  every  other  passion,  they  relin- 
quished their  ancient  inheritances  without  any  reluc- 
tance, and  for  prices  far  below  their  value,  that  they 
might  sally  forth  as  adventurers  in  quest  of  new  settle- 
ments in  unknown  countries.  The  monarchs  of  the 
great  kingdoms  in  the  "West,  none  of  whom  had  en- 
gaged in  the  first  crusade,  eagerly  seized  this  oppor- 
tunity of  annexing  considerable  territories  to  their 
crowns  at  small  expense.24  Besides  this,  several  great 
barons  who  perished  in  the  holy  war  having  left  no 
heirs,  their  fiefs  reverted  of  course  to  their  respective 
sovereigns ;  and  by  these  accessions  of  property,  as 
well  as  power  taken  from  the  one  scale  and  thrown 
into  the  other,  the  regal  authority  rose  in  proportion 
as  that  of  the  aristocracy  declined.  The  absence,  too. 
of  many  potent  vassals,  accustomed  to  control  and 
give  law  to  their  sovereigns,  afforded  them  an  oppor- 
tunity of  extending  their  prerogative,  and  of  acquiring 
a  degree  of  weight  in  the  constitution  which  they  did 
not  formerly  possess.  To  these  circumstances  we  may 
add  that,  as  all  who  assumed  the  cross  were  taken  under 
the  immediate  protection  of  the  Church,  and  its  heaviest 
anathemas  were  denounced  against  such  as  should  dis- 
quiet or  annoy  those  who  had  devoted  themselves  to 

24  Wilhelm.  Malmsbnr.  Guibert.  Abbas,  ap.  Bongars.,  vol.  i.  p.  481. 


SECTION  i.]  STATE    OF   EUROPE.  29 

this  sorvi.ee,  the  private  quarrels  and  hostilities  which 
banished  tranquillity  from  a  feudal  kingdom  were  sus- 
pended or  extinguished;  a  more  general  and  steady 
administration  of  justice  began  to  be  introduced,  and 
some  advances  were  made  towards  the  establishment  of 
regular  government  in  the  several  kingdoms  of  Europe.25 
The  commercial  effects  of  the  crusades  were  not  less 
considerable  than  those  which  I  have  already  mentioned. 
The  first  armies  under  the  standard  of  the  cross,  which 
Peter  the  Hermit  and  Godfrey  of  Bouillon  led  through 
Germany  and  Hungary  to  Constantinople,  suffered  so 
much  by  the  length  of  the  march,  as  well  as  by  the 
fierceness  of  the  barbarous  people  who  inhabited  those 
countries,  that  it  deterred  others  from  taking  the  same 
route ;  and,  rather  than  encounter  so  many  dangers, 
they  chose  to  go  by  sea.  Yenice,  Genoa,  and  Pisa  fur- 
nished the  transports  on  which  they  embarked.  The 
sum  which  these  cities  received  merely  for  freight  from 
such  numerous  armies  was  immense.26  This,  however, 
was  but  a  small  part  of  what  they  gained  by  the  expe- 
ditions to  the  Holy  Land  :  the  crusaders  contracted 
with  them  for  military  stores  and  provisions;  their 
fleets  kept  on  the  coast  as  the  armies  advanced  by  land, 
and,  supplying  them  with  whatever  was  wanting, 
engrossed  all  the  profits  of  a  branch  of  commerce 
which  in  every  age  has  been  extremely  lucrative.  The 
success  which  attended  the  arms  of  the  crusaders  was 
productive  of  advantages  still  more  permanent.  There 
are  charters  yet  extant,  containing  grants  to  the  Vene- 
tians, Pisans,  and  Genoese,  of  the  most  extensive  im- 
munities in  the  several  settlements  which  the  Christians 
made  in  Asia.  All  the  commodities  which  they  imported . 
or  exported  are  thereby  exempted  from  every  imposition; 

55  Du  Cange,  Glossar.,  voc.  Cruce      also  Note  XIV. 

signatas. — Guib.    Abbas,    ap.    Bon-  26  Muratori,      Antiquit.      Italic, 

gars.,   vol.    i.    pp.    480,  482. — See      Medii  vEvi,  vol.  ii.  p.  905. 


30  A    VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  1 

the  property  of  entire  suburbs  in  some  of  the  mari- 
time towns,  and  of  large  streets  in  others,  is  vested 
in  them ;  and  all  questions  arising  among  persons  set- 
tled within  their  precincts  or  who  traded  under  their 
protection  are  appointed  to  be  tried  by  their  own  laws 
and  by  judges  of  their  own  appointment.27  When  the 
crusaders  seized  Constantinople  and  placed  one  of  their 
own  leaders  on  the  imperial  throne,  the  Italian  states 
were  likewise  gainers  by  that  event.  The  Venetians, 
who  had  planned  the  enterprise  and  took  a  considerable 
part  in  carrying  it  into  execution,  did  not  neglect  to 
secure  to  themselves  the  chief  advantages  redounding 
from  its  success.  They  made  themselves  masters  of 
part  of  the  ancient  Peloponnesus  in  Greece,  together 
with  some  of  the  most  fertile  islands  in  the  Archipelago. 
Many  valuable  branches  of  the  commerce  which  formerly 
centred  in  Constantinople  were  transferred  to  Venice, 
Genoa,  or  Pisa.  Thus  a  succession  of  events  occasioned 
by  the  holy  war  opened  various  sources  from  which 
wealth  flowed  in  such  abundance  into  these  cities28  as 
enabled  them,  in  concurrence  with  another  institution, 
which  shall  be  immediately  mentioned,  to  secure  their 
own  liberty  and  independence. 

II.  The  institution  to  which  I  alluded  was  the  form- 
ing of  cities  into  communities,  corporations,  or  bodies 
politic,  and  granting  them  the  privilege  of  municipal 
jurisdiction,  which  contributed  more  perhaps  than  any 
other  cause  to  introduce  regular  government,  police, 
and  arts,  and  to  diffuse  them  over  Europe.  The  feudal 
government  had  degenerated  into  a  system  of  oppres- 
sion. The  usurpations  of  the  nobles  were  become  un- 
bounded and  intolerable  ;  they  had  reduced  the  great 
body  of  the  people  into  a  state  of  actual  servitude :  the 

27  Muratori,     Antiquit.      Italic.      Constant,    sous   1'Empereurs   Fran- 
Medii  .<Evi,  vol.  ii.  p.  906,  etc.  gois,  p.  105,  etc. 

28  Yillehardouin,     Histoire      de 


SECTION  i.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  &) 

condition  of  those  dignified  with  the  name  of  freemen 
was  often  little  preferable  to  that  of  the  other.  Nor 
was  such  oppression  the  portion  of  those  alone  who 
dwelt  in  the  country  and  were  employed  in  cultivating 
the  estate  of  their  master.  Cities  and  villages  found  it 
necessary  to  hold  of  some  great  lord,  on  whom  they 
might  depend  for  protection  and  become  no  less  subject 
to  his  arbitrary  jurisdiction.  The  inhabitants  were 
deprived  of  those  rights  which,  in  social  life,  arc 
deemed  most  natural  and  inalienable.  They  could  not 
dispose  of  the  effects  which  their  own  industry  had 
acquired,  either  by  a  latter  will,  or  by  any  deed  exe- 
cuted during  their  life.29  They  had  no  right  to  appoint 
guardians  for  their  children  during  their  minority. 
They  were  not  permitted  to  marry  without  purchasing 
the  consent  of  the  lord  on  whom  they  depended.30  If 
once  they  had  commenced  a  law-suit,  they  durst  not 
terminate  it  by  an  accommodation,  because  that  would 
have  deprived  the  lord,  in  whose  court  they  pleaded,  of 
the  perquisites  due  to  him  on  passing  sentence.31  Ser- 
vices of  various  kinds,  no  less  disgraceful  than  oppres- 
sive, were  exacted  from  them  without  mercy  or  modera- 
tion. The  spirit  of  industry  was  checked  in  some  cities 
by  absurd  regulations,  and  in  others  by  unreasonable 
exactions;  nor  would  the  narrow  and  oppressive  maxims 
of  a  military  aristocracy  have  permitted  it  ever  to  rise  to 
any  degree  of  height  or  vigour.32 

But  as  soon  as  the  cities  of  Italy  began  to  turn  their 
attention  towards  commerce,  and  to  conceive  some  idea 
of  the  advantages  which  they  might  derive  from  it, 

29  Dacherii    Spicileg.,    torn.     xi.  vol.   iv.    p.    20. — Dacher.,   Spicil., 

pp.  374,  375,  edit,  in  4to. — Ordon-  vol.  ix.  pp.  325,  341. 
nances  des  Eois  de  France,  tom.  iii.  3I   Dacher.,      Spicil.,      vol.      ix. 

p.  204,  no.  2,  6.  p.  182. 

M]  Ordonnances     des     Kois     de  32  M.  1' Abbs'  Mably,  Observations 

France,    tom.    i.    p.    22,    tom.    iii.  sur  1'Histoire  de  France,  torn,  ii., 

p.  203.no.  1. — Murat.,  Antiq.  Ital.,  pp.  2,  96. 


52  A   VIEW   OF   THE  [SECTION  i 

they  became  impatient  to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  their 
insolent  lords,  and  to  establish  among  themselves  such 
a  free  and  equal  government  as  would  render  property 
secure  and  industry  flourishing.  The  German  em- 
perors, especially  those  of  the  Franconian  and  Suabian 
lines,  as  the  seat  of  their  government  was  far  distant 
from  Italy,  possessed  a  feeble  and  imperfect  jurisdic- 
tion in  that  country.  Their  perpetual  quarrels,  either 
with  the  popes  or  with  their  own  turbulent  vassals, 
diverted  their  attention  from  the  interior  police  of  Italy 
and  gave  constant  employment  to  their  arms.  These 
circumstances  encouraged  the  inhabitants  of  some  of 
the  Italian  cities,  towards  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh 
century,  to  assume  new  privileges,  to  unite  together 
more  closely,  and  to  form  themselves  into  bodies  politic 
under  the  government  of  laws  established  by  common 
consent.33  The  rights  which  many  cities  acquired  by 
bold  or  fortunate  usurpations,  others  purchased  from  the 
emperors,  who  deemed  themselves  gainers  when  they 
received  large  sums  for  immunities  which  they  were  no 
longer  able  to  withhold ;  and  some  cities  obtained  them 
gratuitously,  from  the  generosity  or  facility  of  the 
princes  on  whom  they  depended.  The  great  increase 
of  wealth  which  the  crusades  brought  into  Italy  occa- 
sioned a  new  kind  of  fermentation  and  activity  in  the 
minds  of  the  people,  and  excited  such  a  general  passion 
tor  liberty  and  independence  that  before  the  conclusion 
of  the  last  crusade  all  the  considerable  cities  in  that 
country  had  either  purchased  or  had  extorted  large 
immunities  from  the  emperors.34 

This  innovation  was  not  long  known  in  Italy  before 
it  made  its  way  into  France.  Louis  le  Gros,  in  order 
to  create  some  power  that  might  counterbalance  those 
potent  vassals  who  controlled  or  gave  law  to  the  crown, 
first  adopted  the  plan  of  conferring  new  privileges  on 

83  Murat.,  Antiq.  Ital.,  vol.  iv.  p.  6.  34  Note  XV. 


r.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  33 

the  towns  situated  within  its  own  domain.  These  privi- 
leges were  called  charters  of  community,  by  which  he 
enfranchised  the  inhabitants,  abolished  all  marks  of 
servitude,  and  formed  them  into  corporations  or  bodies 
politic,  to  be  governed  by  a  council  and  magistrates  of 
their  own  nomination.  These  magistrates  had  the  right 
of  administering  justice  within  their  own  precincts,  of 
levying  taxes,  of  embodying  and  training  to  arms  the 
militia  of  the  town,  which  took  the  field  when  required 
by  the  sovereign,  under  the  command  of  officers  ap- 
pointed by  the  community.  The  great  barons  imitated 
the  example  of  their  monarch,  and  granted  like  immu- 
nities to  the  towns  within  their  territories.  They  had 
wasted  such  great  sums  in  their  expeditions  to  the  Holy 
Land  that  they  were  eager  to  lay  hold  on  this  new  expe- 
dient for  raising  money,  by  the  sale  of  those  charters  of 
liberty.  Though  the  institution  of  communities  was 
as  repugnant  to  their  maxims  of  policy  as  it  was  adverse 
to  their  power,  they  disregarded  remote  consequences 
in  order  to  obtain  present  relief.  In  less  than  two 
centuries  servitude  was  abolished  in  most  of  the  towns 
in  France,  and  they  became  free  corporations,  instead  of 
dependent  villages  without  jurisdiction  or  privileges.35 
Much  about  the  same  period  the  great  cities  in  Germany 
began  to  acquire  like  immunities,  and  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  their  present  liberty  and  independence.36  The 
practice  spread  quickly  over  Europe,  and  was  adopted  in 
Spain,  England,  Scotland,  and  all  the  other  feudal 
kingdoms.37 

The  good  effects  of  this  new  institution  were  immedi- 
ately felt,  and  its  influence  on  government  as  well  as 
manners  was  no  less  extensive  than  salutary.  A  great 
body  of  the  people  was  released  from  servitude,  and  from 
all  the  arbitrary  and  grievous  impositions  to  which  that 
wretched  condition  had  subjected  them.  Towns,  upon 

35  Note  XVL  8f)  Note  XVII.  37  Note  XVIII. 

VOL.    I.  D 


34  A   VIEW    OP    THE  [SECTION  I. 

acquiring  the  right  of  community,  became  so  many 
little  republics,  governed  by  known  and  equal  laws. 
Liberty  was  deemed  such  an  essential  and  characteristic- 
part  in  their  constitution  that  if  any  slave  took  refuge 
in  one  of  them,  and  resided  there  during  a  year  without 
being  claimed,  he  was  instantly  declared  a  freeman  and 
admitted  as  a  member  of  the  community.38 

As  one  part  of  the  people  owed  their  liberty  to  the 
erection  of  communities,  another  was  indebted  to  them 
for  their  security.  Such  had  been  the  state  of  Europe 
during  several  centuries  that  self-preservation  obliged 
every  man  to  court  the  patronage  of  some  powerful 
baron,  and  in  times  of  danger  his  castle  was  the  place  to 
which  all  resorted  for  safety.  But  towns  surrounded 
with  walls,  whose  inhabitants  were  regularly  trained  to 
arms,  and  bound  by  interest,  as  well  as  by  the  most 
solemn  engagements,  reciprocally  to  defend  each  other, 
afforded  a  more  commodious  and  secure  retreat.  The 
nobles  began  to  be  considered  as  of  less  importance 
when  they  ceased  to  be  the  sole  guardians  to  whom 
the  people  could  look  up  for  protection  against  violence. 

If  the  nobility  suffered  some  diminution  of  their 
credit  and  power  by  the  privileges  granted  to  the  cities, 
the  crown  acquired  an  increase  of  both.  As  there  were 
no  regular  troops  kept  on  foot  in  any  of  the  feudal 
kingdoms,  the  monarch  could  bring  no  army  into  the 
field  but  what  was  composed  of  soldiers  furnished  by 
the  crown  vassals,  always  jealous  of  the  regal  authority  ; 
nor  had  he  any  funds  for  carrying  on  the  public  service 
but  such  as  they  granted  him  with  a  very  sparing  hand. 
But  when  the  members  of  communities  were  permitted 
to  bear  arms,  and  were  trained  to  the  use  of  them,  this 
in  some  degree  supplied  the  first  defect,  and  gave  the 
crown  the  command  of  a  body  of  men  independent  of 

^  Statut.     Humbert!     Bellojoci,       185. — Charta  Comit.  Forens.,  ibid., 
Dacher.,  Spicil.,    vol.  ix.  pp.    182,      p.  193. 


SECTION  I.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  35 

its  great  vassals.  The  attachment  of  the  cities  to  their 
sovereigns,  whom  they  respected  as  the  first  authors 
of  their  liberties,  and  whom  they  were  obliged  to  court 
as  the  protectors  of  their  immunities  against  the  domi- 
neering spirit  of  the  nobles,  contributed  somewhat  to- 
wards removing  the  second  evil,  as,  on  many  occasions^ 
it  procured  the  crown  supplies  of  money,  which  added 
new  force  to  government.39 

The  acquisition  of  liberty  made  such  a  happy  change 
in  the  condition  of  all  the  members  of  communities  as 
roused  them  from  that  inaction  into  which  they  had 
been  sunk  by  the  wretchedness  of  their  former  state. 
The  spirit  of  industry  revived.  Commerce  became  an 
jbject  of  attention,  and  began  to  nourish.  Population 
increased.  Independence  was  established;  and  wealth 
flowed  into  cities  which  had  long  been  the  seat  of 
poverty  and  oppression.  Wealth  was  accompanied  by 
its  usual  attendants,  ostentation  and  luxury  ;  and  though 
the  former  was  formal  and  cumbersome,  and  the  latter 
inelegant,  they  led  gradually  to  greater  refinement  in 
manners  and  in  the  habits  of  life.  Together  with  this 
improvement  in  manners,  a  more  regular  species  of 
government  and  police  was  introduced.  As  cities  grew 
to  be  more  populous,  and  the  occasions  of  intercourse 
among  men  increased,  statutes  and  regulations  multiplied 
of  course,  and  all  became  sensible  that  their  common 
safety  depended  on  observing  them  with  exactness  and 
on  punishing  such  as  violated  them  with  promptitude 
and  rigour.  Laws  and  subordination,  as  well  as  polished 
manners,  taking  their  rise  in  cities,  diffused  themselves 
insensibly  through  the  rest  of  the  society. 

III.  The  inhabitants  of  cities,  having  obtained  per- 
sonal freedom  and  municipal  jurisdiction,  soon  acquired 
civil  liberty  and  political  power.  It  was  a  fundamental 
principle  in  the  feudal  system  of  policy  that  no  free- 

"  Ordon.  des  Rois  de  France,  torn.  i.  pp.  602,  785;  torn.  ii.  pp.  318,  422. 


36  A    VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  i 

man  could  be  subjected  to  new  laws  or  taxes  unless  by 
his  own  consent.  In  consequence  of  this,  the  vassals 
of  every  baron  were  called  to  his  court,  in  which  they 
established,  by  mutual  consent,  such  regulations  as  they 
deemed  most  beneficial  to  their  small  society,  and 
granted  their  superior  such  supplies  of  money  as  were 
proportioned  to  their  abilities  or  to  his  wants.  The 
barons  themselves,  conformably  to  the  same  maxim, 
were  admitted  into  the  supreme  assembly  of  the  nation, 
and  concurred  with  the  sovereign  in  enacting  laws  or 
in  imposing  taxes.  As  the  superior  lord,  according  to 
the  original  plan  of  feudal  policy,  retained  the  direct 
property  of  those  lands  which  he  granted  in  temporary 
possession  to  his  vassals,  the  law,  even  after  fiefs  be- 
came hereditary,  still  supposed  this  original  practice  to 
subsist.  The  great  council  of  each  nation,  whether 
distinguished  by  the  name  of  a  parliament,  a  diet,  the 
cortes,  or  the  states- general,  was  composed  entirely  of 
such  barons  and  dignified  ecclesiastics  as  held  imme- 
diately of  the  crown.  Towns,  whether  situated  within 
the  royal  domain  or  on  the  lands  of  a  subject,  de- 
pended originally  for  protection  on  the  lord  of  whom 
they  held.  They  had  no  legal  name,  no  political  exist- 
once,  which  would  entitle  them  to  be  admitted  into  the 
legislative  assembly,  or  could  give  them  any  authority 
there.  But  as  soon  as  they  were  enfranchised,  and 
formed  into  bodies  corporate,  they  became  legal  and  in- 
dependent members  of  the  constitution,  and  acquired 
all  the  rights  essential  to  freemen.  Among  these,  the 
most  valuable  was  the  privilege  of  a  decisive  voice  in 
enacting  public  laws  and  granting  national  subsidies. 
It  was  natural  for  cities,  accustomed  to  a  form  of 
municipal  government  according  to  which  no  regula- 
tion could  be  established  within  the  community,  and 
no  money  could  be  raised,  but  by  their  own  consent, 
to  claim  this  privilege.  The  wealth,  the  power,  and 


SECTION  L]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  37 

consideration  which  they  acquired  on  recovering  their 
liberty  added  weight  to  their  claim ;  and  favourable 
events  happened,  or  fortunate  conjunctures  occurred,  in 
the  different  kingdoms  of  Europe,  which  facilitated 
their  obtaining  possession  of  this  important  right.  Ill 
England,  one  of  the  first  countries  in  which  the  repre- 
sentatives of  boroughs  were  admitted  into  the  great 
council  of  the  nation,  the  barons  who  took  arms  against 
Henry  III.  summoned  them  to  attend  parliament,  in 
order  to  add  greater  popularity  to  their  party  and  to 
strengthen  the  barrier  against  the  encroachment  of  regal 
power.  In  France,  Philip  the  Fair,  a  n^onarch  no  less 
sagacious  than  enterprising,  considered  them  as  instru- 
ments which  might  be  employed  with  equal  advantage 
to  extend  the  royal  prerogative,  to  counterbalance  the 
exorbitant  power  of  the  nobles,  and  to  facilitate  the  im- 
position of  new  taxes.  With  these  views,  he  introduced 
the  deputies  of  such  towns  as  were  formed  into  com- 
munities into  the  states-general  of  the  nation.40  In  the 
empire,  the  wealth  and  immunities  of  the  imperial  cities 
placed  them  on  a  level  with  the  most  considerable 
members  of  the  Germanic  body.  Conscious  of  their  own 
power  and  dignity,  they  pretended  to  the  privilege  of 
forming  a  separate  bench  in  the  diet,  and  made  good 
their  pretensions.41  [1293.] 

But  in  what  way  soever  the  representatives  of  cities 
first  gained  a  place  in  the  legislature,  that  event  had 
great  influence  on  the  form  and  genius  of  government. 
It  tempered  the  rigour  of  aristocratical  oppression  with 
a  proper  mixture  of  popular  liberty ;  it  secured  to  the 
great  body  of  the  people,  who  had  formerly  no  repre- 
sentatives, active  and  powerful  guardians  of  their  rights 
and  privileges;  it  established  an  intermediate  power 

40  Pasquier,    Recherches    <le    la      et    Droit   d'Allemagne,    pp.    408, 
France,  ap.  81,  edit.  Par.,  1633.  451. 

41  Pfeft'el,   ALre^   de   1'Histoire 


38  A    VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  L 

between  tlie  king  and  the  nobles,  to  which,  each  had 
recourse  alternately,  and  which  at  some  times  opposed 
the  usurpations  of  the  former,  on  other  occasions  checked 
the  encroachments  of  the  latter.  As  soon  as  the  repre- 
sentatives of  communities  gained  any  degree  of  credit 
and  influence  in  the  legislature,  the  spirit  of  laws  became 
different  from  wrhat  it  had  formerly  been ;  it  flowed  from 
new  principles;  it  was  directed  towards  new  objects; 
equality,  order,  the  public  good,  and  the  redress  of 
grievances,  were  phrases  and  ideas  brought  into  use,  and 
which  grew  to  be  familiar  in  the  statutes  and  juris- 
prudence of  the  European  nations.  Almost  all  the 
efforts  in  favour  of  liberty  in  every  country  of  Europe 
have  been  made  by  this  new  power  in  the  legislature. 
In  proportion  as  it  rose  to  consideration  and  influence, 
the  severity  of  the  aristocratical  spirit  decreased ;  and 
the  privileges  of  the  people  became  gradually  more 
extensive,  as  the  ancient  and  exorbitant  jurisdiction  of 
the  nobles  was  abridged.42 

IY.  The  inhabitants  of  towns  having  been  declared 
free  by  the  charters  of  communities,  that  part  of  the 
people  which  resided  in  the  country  and  was  employed 
in  agriculture  began  to  recover  liberty  by  enfranchise- 
ment. During  the  rigour  of  feudal  government,  as  hath 
been  already  observed,  the  great  body  of  the  lower 
people  was  reduced  to  servitude.  They  were  slaves 
fixed  to  the  soil  which  they  cultivated,  and  together 
with  it  were  transferred  from  one  proprietor  to  another, 
by  sale  or  by  conveyance.  The  spirit  of  feudal  policy 
did  not  favour  the  enfranchisement  of  that  order  of  men. 
It  was  an  established  maxim  that  no  vassal  could  legally 
diminish  the  value  of  a  fief,  to  the  detriment  of  the  lord 
from  whom  he  had  received  it.  In  consequence  of  this, 
manumission  by  the  authority  of  the  immediate  master 
was  not  valid  j  and,  unless  it  was  confirmed  by  the 

12  Note  XIX. 


SECTION  i.]  STATE    OP    EUROPE.  39 

superior  lord  of  whom  he  held,  slaves  belonging  to  the 
fief  did  not  acquire  a  complete  right  to  their  liberty. 
Thus  it  became  necessary  to  ascend  through  all  the 
gradations  of  feudal  holding  to  the  king,  the  lord  para- 
mount.43 A  form  of  procedure  so  tedious  and  trouble- 
some discouraged  the  practice  of  manumission.  Domestic 
or  personal  slaves  often  obtained  liberty  from  the  humanity 
or  beneficence  of  their  masters,  to  whom  they  belonged 
in  absolute  property.  The  condition  of  slaves  fixed  to 
the  soil  was  much  more  unalterable. 

But  the  freedom  and  independence  which  one  part  of 
the  people  had  obtained  by  the  institution  of  communi- 
ties inspired  the  other  with  the  most  ardent  desire  of 
acquiring  the  same  privileges ;  and  their  superiors, 
sensible  of  the  various  advantages  which  they  had  de- 
rived from  their  former  concessions  to  their  dependants, 
were  less  unwilling  to  gratify  them  by  the  grant  of  new 
immunities.  The  enfranchisement  of  slaves  became  more 
frequent ;  and  the  monarchs  of  France,  prompted  by 
necessity  no  less  than  by  their  inclination  to  reduce  the 
power  of  the  nobles,  endeavoured  to  render  it  general. 
Louis  X.  and  Philip  the  Long  issued  ordinances  declar- 
ing "  that  as  all  men  were  by  nature  free  born,  and  as 
their  kingdom  was  called  the  kingdom  of  Franks,  they 
determined  that  it  should  be  so  in  reality  as  well  as  in 
name :  therefore  they  appointed  that  enfranchisements 
should  be  granted  throughout  the  whole  kingdom,  upon 
just  and  reasonable  conditions."  44  These  edicts  were 
carried  into  immediate  execution  within  the  royal 
domain.  The  example  of  their  sovereigns,  together 
with  the  expectation  of  considerable  sums  which  they 
might  raise  by  this  expedient,  led  many  of  the  nobles  fo 
set  their  dependants  at  liberty;  and  servitude  was 
gradually  abolished  in  almost  every  province  of  the 

43  Establissements  de  St.  Louis,      p.  283,  note  (a). 
liv.    ii.    ch.    34.  — Ordon.,   torn,    i  44  Ordon.,  torn.  i.  pp.  583,  653. 


4()  A    VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  i. 

kingdom.45  In  Italy,  the  establishment  of  republican 
government  in  their  great  cities,  the  genius  and  maxims 
of  which  were  extremely  different  from  those  of  the 
feudal  policy,  together  with  the  ideas  of  equality,  which 
the  progress  of  commerce  had  rendered  familiar,  gradu- 
ally introduced  the  practice  of  enfranchising  the  ancient 
predial  slaves.  In  some  provinces  of  Germany,  the 
persons  who  had  been  subject  to  this  species  of  bondage 
were  released ;  in  others,  the  rigour  of  their  state  was 
mitigated.  In  England,  as  the  spirit  of  liberty  gained 
ground,  the  very  name  and  idea  of  personal  servitude, 
without  any  formal  interposition  of  the  legislature  to 
prohibit  it,  was  totally  banished. 

The  effects  of  such  a  remarkable  change  in  the  condi- 
tion of  so  great  a  part  of  the  people  could  not  fail  of 
being  considerable  and  extensive.  The  husbandman, 
master  of  his  own  industry,  and  secure  of  reaping  for 
himself  the  fruits  of  his  labour,  became  the  farmer  of 
the  same  fields  where  he  had  formerly  been  compelled 
to  toil  for  the  benefit  of  another.  The  odious  names 
of  master  and  of  slave,  the  most  mortifying  and  de- 
pressing of  all  distinctions  to  human  nature,  were  abol- 
ished. New  prospects  opened,  and  new  incitements  to 
ingenuity  and  enterprise  presented  themselves,  to  those 
who  were  emancipated.  The  expectation  of  bettering 
their  fortune,  as  well  as  that  of  raising  themselves  to  a 
more  honourable  condition,  concurred  in  calling  forth 
their  activity  and  genius  ;  and  a  numerous  class  of  men, 
who  formerly  had  no  political  existence  and  were  em- 
ployed merely  as  instruments  of  labour,  became  useful 
citizens,  and  contributed  towards  augmenting  the  force 
or  riches  of  the  society  which  adopted  them  as  members. 

Y.  The  various  expedients  which  were  employed  in 
order  to  introduce  a  more  regular,  equal,  and  vigorous 
administration  of  justice  contributed  greatly  towards 

"  Note  XX. 


SECTION  i.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  41 

the  improvement  of  society.  What  were  the  particular 
modes  of  dispensing  justice,  in  their  several  countries, 
among  the  various  barbarous  nations  which  overran  the 
Eoman  empire  and  took  possession  of  its  different  pro- 
vinces, cannot  now  be  determined  with  certainty.  We 
may  conclude,  from  the  form  of  government  established 
among  them,  as  well  as  from  their  ideas  concerning  the 
nature  of  society,  that  the  authority  of  the  magistrate 
was  extremely  limited,  and  the  independence  of  indi- 
viduals proportionally  great.  History  and  records,  as 
far  as  these  reach  back,  justify  this  conclusion,  and 
represent  the  ideas  and  exercise  of  justice  in  all  the 
countries  of  Europe  as  little  different  from  those  which 
must  take  place  in  the  most  simple  state  of  civil  life. 
To  maintain  the  order  and  tranquillity  of  society  by  the 
regular  execution  of  known  laws ;  to  inflict  vengeance 
011  crimes  destructive  of  the  peace  and  safety  of  indi- 
viduals, by  a  prosecution  carried  on  in  the  name  and  by 
the  authority  of  the  community ;  to  consider  the  punish- 
ment of  criminals  as  a  public  example  to  deter  others 
from  violating  the  laws, — were  objects  of  government 
little  understood  in  theory,  and  less  regarded  in  practice. 
The  magistrate  could  hardly  be  said  to  hold  the  sword 
of  justice;  it  was  left  in  the  hands  of  private  persons. 
Resentment  was  almost  the  sole  motive  for  prosecuting 
crimes;  and  to  gratify  that  passion  was  considered  as 
the  chief  end  in  punishing  them.  He  who  suffered  the 
wrong  was  the  only  person  who  had  a  right  to  pursue 
the  aggressor  and  to  exact  or  to  remit  the  punishment. 
From  a  system  of  judicial  procedure  so  crude  and  defec- 
tive that  it  seems  to  be  scarcely  compatible  with  the 
subsistence  of  civil  society,  disorder  and  anarchy  flowed. 
Superstition  concurred  with  this  ignorance  concerning 
the  nature  of  government,  in  obstructing  the  administra- 
tion of  justice,  or  in  rendering  it  capricious  and  unequal. 
To  provide  remedies  for  these  evils,  so  as  to  give  a  more 


12  A    VIEW    OP    THE  [SECTION  i. 

regular  course  to  justice,  was,  during  several  centuries, 
one  great  object  of  political  wisdom.  The  regulations 
for  this  purpose  may  be  reduced  to  three  general  heads  : 
to  explain  these,  and  to  point  out  the  manner  in  which 
they  operated,  is  an  important  article  in  the  history  of 
society  among  the  nations  of  Europe. 

1.  The  first  considerable  step  towards  establishing 
an  equal  administration  of  justice  was  the  abolishment 
of  the  right  which  individuals  claimed  of  waging  war 
with  each  other  in  their  own  name  and  by  their  own 
authority.  To  repel  injuries,  and  to  revenge  wrongs, 
is  no  less  natural  to  man  than  to  cultivate  friendship ; 
and  while  society  remains  in  its  most  simple  state,  the 
former  is  considered  as  a  personal  right,  no  less  im- 
alicnable  than  the  latter.  JS^oi-  do  men  in  this  situation 
deem  that  they  have  a  title  to  redress  their  own  wrongs 
alone  :  they  are  touched  with  the  injuries  done  to  those 
with  whom  they  are  connected  or  in  whose  honour  they 
are  interested,  and  are  no  less  prompt  to  avenge  them. 
The  savage,  how  imperfectly  soever  he  may  compre- 
hend the  principles  of  political  union,  feels  warmly 
the  sentiments  of  social  affection  and  the  obligations 
arising  from  the  ties  of  blood.  On  the  appearance 
of  an  injury  or  affront  offered  to  his  family  or  tribe,  he 
kindles  into  rage,  and  pursues  the  authors  of  it  with 
the  keenest  resentment.  He  considers  it  as  cowardly 
to  expect  redress  from  any  arm  but  his  own,  and  as 
infamous  to  give  up  to  another  the  right  of  determining 
what  reparation  he  should  accept,  or  with  what  ven- 
geance he  should  rest  satisfied. 

The  maxims  and  practice  of  all  uncivilized  nations 
with  respect  to  the  prosecution  and  punishment  of 
offenders,  particularly  those  of  the  ancient  Germans, 
and  other  barbarians  who  invaded  the  Eoman  empire, 
are  perfectly  comformable  to  these  ideas.46  While  they 

46  Tacit,  de  Mor.  German.,  cap.  21. — Veil.  Paterc.,  lib.  ii.  c.  118. 


SECTION  i.j  STATE    OF    EUEOPE.  43 

retained  their  native  simplicity  of  manners,  and  con- 
tinued to  be  divided  into  small  tribes  or  societies,  the 
defects  in  this  imperfect  system  of  criminal  jurispru- 
dence (if  it  merits  that  name)  were  less  sensibly  felt. 
When  they  came  to  settle  in  the  extensive  provinces 
which  they  had  conquered,  and  to  form  themselves  into 
great  monarchies,  when  new  objects  of  ambition  pre- 
senting themselves  increased  both  the  number  and  the 
violence  of  their  dissensions,  they  ought  to  have  adopted 
new  maxims  concerning  the  redress  of  injuries,  and  to 
have  regulated  by  general  and  equal  laws  that  which 
they  formerly  left  to  be  directed  by  the  caprice  of 
private  passion.  But  fierce  and  haughty  chieftains,  ac- 
customed to  avenge  themselves  on  such  as  had  injured 
them,  did  not  think  of  relinquishing  a  right  which  they 
considered  as  a  privilege  of  their  order  and  a  mark  of 
their  independence.  Laws  enforced  by  the  authority 
of  princes  and  magistrates  who  possessed  little  power 
commanded  no  great  degree  of  reverence.  The  admin- 
istration of  justice  among  rude,  illiterate  people  was 
not  so  accurate,  or  decisive,  or  uniform,  as  to  induce 
men  to  submit  implicitly  to  its  determinations.  Every 
offended  baron  buckled  on  his  armour  and  sought  re- 
dress at  the  head  of  his  vassals.  His  adversary  met 
him  in  like  hostile  array.  Neither  of  them  appealed 
to  impotent  laws  which  could  afford  them  no  protec- 
tion; neither  of  them  would  submit  points,  in  which 
their  honour  and  their  passions  were  warmly  interested, 
to  the  slow  determination  of  a  judicial  inquiry.  Both 
trusted  to  their  swords  for  the  decision  of  the  contest. 
The  kindred  and  dependants  of  the  aggressor,  as  well 
as  the  defender,  were  involved  in  the  quarrel.  They 
had  not  even  the  liberty  of  remaining  neutral.  Such 
as  refused  to  act  in  concert  with  the  party  to  which 
they  belonged  were  not  only  exposed  to  infamy,  but 
subjected  to  legal  penalties. 


44  A   VIEW   OF    THE  [SECTION  L 

The  different  kingdoms  of  Europe  were  torn  and 
afflicted,  during  several  centuries,  by  intestine  wars, 
excited  by  private  animosities,  and  carried  on  with  all 
the  rage  natural  to  men  of  fierce  manners  and  of  violent 
passions.  The  estate  of  every  baron  was  a  kind  of 
independent  territory,  disjoined  from  those  around  it, 
and  the  hostilities  between  them  seldom  ceased.  The 
evil  became  so  inveterate  and  deep-rooted  that  the 
form  and  laws  of  private  war  were  ascertained,  and 
regulations  concerning  it  made  a  part  in  the  system  of 
jurisprudence,47  in  the  same  manner  as  if  this  practice 
had  been  founded  in  some  natural  right  of  humanity,  or 
in  the  original  constitution  of  civil  society. 

So  great  was  the  disorder,  and  such  the  calamities, 
which  these  perpetual  hostilities  occasioned,  that  vari- 
ous efforts  were  made  to  wrest  from  the  nobles  this  per- 
nicious privilege.  It  was  the  interest  of  every  sovereign 
to  abolish  a  practice  which  almost  annihilated  his  au- 
thority. Charlemagne  prohibited  it  by  an  express  law, 
as  an  invention  of  the  Devil  to  destroy  the  order  and 
happiness  of  society  ;48  but  the  reign  of  one  monarch, 
however  vigorous  and  active,  was  too  short  to  extirpate 
a  custom  so  firmly  established.  Instead  of  enforcing 
this  prohibition,  his  feeble  successors  durst  venture  on 
nothing  more  than  to  apply  palliatives.  They  declared 
it  unlawful  for  any  person  to  commence  war  until  he 
had  sent  a  formal  defiance  to  the  kindred  and  depend- 
ants of  his  adversary;  they  ordained  that,  after  the 
commission  of  the  trespass  or  crime  which  gave  rise  to 
a  private  war,  forty  days  must  elapse  before  the  person 
injured  should  attack  the  vassals  of  his  adversary ;  they 
enjoined  all  persons  to  suspend  their  private  animosi- 
ties and  to  cease  from  hostilities  when  the  king  was 

47  Beaumanoir,     Coustumes     de          4S  Capitul.  A.D.  801,  edit.  Baluz., 
Beauvoisis,  ch.   59,  et  les  notes  de      vol.  i.  p.  371. 
TliaumasKiere,  p.  447. 


SECTION  i.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  45 

engaged  in  any  Avar  against  the  enemies  of  the  nation. 
The  Church  co-operated  with  the  civil  magistrate,  and 
interposed  its  authority,  in  order  to  extirpate  a  practice 
so  repugnant  to  the  spirit  of  Christianity.  Various 
councils  issued  decrees  prohibiting  all  private  wars, 
and  denounced  the  heaviest  anathemas  against  such  as 
should  disturb  the  tranquillity  of  society  by  claiming  or 
exercising  that  barbarous  right.  The  aid  of  religion 
was  called  in  to  combat  and  subdue  the  ferocity  of  the 
times.  The  Almighty  was  said  to  have  manifested,  by 
visions  and  revelations  to  different  persons,  his  dis- 
approbation of  that  spirit  of  revenge  which  armed  one 
part  of  his  creatures  against  the  other.  Men  were  re- 
quired, in  the  name  of  God,  to  sheathe  their  swords, 
and  to  remember  the  sacred  ties  which  united  them  as 
Christians  and  as  members  of  the  same  society.  But 
this  junction  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  authority,  though 
strengthened  by  everything  most  apt  to  alarm  and  to 
overawe  the  credulous  spirit  of  those  ages,  produced  no 
other  effect  than  some  temporary  suspensions  of  hostili- 
ties, and  a  cessation  from  war  on  certain  days  and  sea- 
sons consecrated  to  the  more  solemn  acts  of  devotion. 
The  nobles  continued  to  assert  this  dangerous  privilege ; 
they  refused  to  obey  some  of  the  laws  calculated  to 
annul  or  circumscribe  it ;  they  eluded  others ;  they 
petitioned,  they  remonstrated,  they  struggled  for  the 
right  of  private  war,  as  the  highest  and  most  honour- 
able distinction  of  their  order.  Even  so  late  as  the 
fourteenth  century  we  find  the  nobles  in  several  pro- 
vinces of  France  contending  for  their  ancient  method 
of  terminating  their  differences  by  the  sword,  in  prefer- 
ence to  that  of  submitting  them  to  the  decision  of  any 
judge.  The  final  abolition  of  this  practice  in  that 
kingdom,  and  the  other  countries  in  which  it  prevailed, 
is  not  to  be  ascribed  so  much  to  the  force  of  statutes 
and  decrees,  as  to  the  gradual  increase  of  the  royal 


40  A    VIEW    OF    THE  fsEcnow  i. 

authority,  and  to  the  imperceptible  progress  of  juster 
sentiments  concerning  government,  order,  and  public 
security.49 

2.  The  prohibition  of  the  form  of  trial  by  judicial 
combat  was  another  considerable  step  towards  the 
introduction  of  such  regular  government  as  secured 
public  order  and  private  tranquillity.  As  the  right  of 
private  war  left  many  of  the  quarrels  among  individuals 
to  be  decided,  like  those  between  nations,  by  arms,  the 
form  of  trial  by  judicial  combat,  which  was  established 
in  every  country  of  Europe,  banished  equity  from  courts 
of  justice,  and  rendered  chance  or  force  the  arbiter  of 
their  determinations.  In  civilized  nations,  all  trans- 
actions of  any  importance  are  concluded  in  writing. 
The  exhibition  of  the  deed  or  instrument  is  full  evi- 
dence of  the  fact,  and  ascertains  with  precision  what 
each  party  has  stipulated  to  perform.  But  among  a  rude 
people,  when  the  arts  of  reading  and  writing  were  such 
uncommon  attainments  that  to  be  master  of  either  en- 
titled a  person  to  the  appellation  of  a  clerk  or  learned 
man,  scarcely  anything  was  committed  to  writing  but 
treaties  between  princes,  their  grants  and  charters  to 
their  subjects,  or  such  transactions  between  private 
parties  as  were  of  extraordinary  consequence  or  had 
an  extensive  effect.  The  greater  part  of  affairs  in 
common  life  and  business  was  carried  on  by  verbal 
contracts  or  promises.  This,  in  many  civil  questions, 
not  only  made  it  difficult  to  bring  proof  sufficient  to 
establish  any  claim,  but  encouraged  falsehood  and 
fraud,  by  rendering  them  extremely  easy.  Even  in 
criminal  cases,  where  a  particular  fact  must  be  ascer- 
tained or  an  accusation  must  be  disproved,  the  nature 
and  effect  of  legal  evidence  were  little  understood  by 
barbarous  nations.  To  define  with  accuracy  that  species 
of  evidence  which  a  court  had  reason  to  expect,  to 

49  Note  XXI. 


i]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  47 

determine  when  it  ought  to  insist  on  positive  proof 
and  when  it  should  be  satisfied  with  a  proof  from  cir- 
cumstances, to  compare  the  testimony  of  discordant 
witnesses,  and  to  fix  the  degree  of  credit  due  to  each, 
were  discussions  too  intricate  and  subtile  for  the  juris- 
prudence of  ignorant  ages.  In  order  to  avoid  encum- 
bering themselves  with  these,  a  more  simple  form  of 
procedure  was  introduced  into  courts  as  well  civil  as 
criminal.  In  all  cases  where  the  notoriety  of  the  fact 
did  not  furnish  the  clearest  and  most  direct  evidence, 
the  person  accused,  or  he  against  whom  an  action  was 
brought,  was  called  legally,  or  offered  voluntarily,  to 
purge  himself  by  oath ;  and  upon  his  declaring  his  inno- 
cence he  was  instantly  acquitted.50  This  absurd  prac- 
tice effectually  screened  guilt  and  fraud  from  detection 
and  punishment,  by  rendering  the  temptation  to  per- 
jury so  powerful  that  it  was  not  easy  to  resist  it.  The 
pernicious  effects  of  it  were  sensibly  felt ;  and,  in  order 
to  guard  against  them,  the  laws  ordained  that  oaths 
should  be  administered  with  great  solemnity,  and  ac- 
companied with  every  circumstance  which  could  inspire 
religious  reverence  or  superstitious  terror.51  This,  how- 
ever, proved  a  feeble  remedy:  these  ceremonious  rites 
became  familiar,  and  their  impression  on  the  imagina- 
tion gradually  diminished;  men  who  could  venture  to 
disregard  truth  were  not  apt  to  startle  at  the  solemni- 
ties of  an  oath.  Their  observation  of  this  put  legis- 
lators upon  devising  a  new  expedient  for  rendering  the 
purgation  by  oath  more  certain  and  satisfactory.  They 
required  the  person  accused  to  appear  with  a  certain 
number  of  freemen,  his  neighbours  or  relations,  who 
corroborated  the  oath  which  he  took,  by  swearing  that 
they  believed  all  that  he  had  uttered  to  be  true.  These 

50  Leg.  Burgund.,  tit.  8  et  45. —  51  Du  Cange,  Glossar.,  voc.  Juror 

Leg.  Alenian.,  tit.  89.  --  Leg.  mentum,  vol.  iii.  p.  1607,  edit. 
Baiwar.,  tit  8,  §  5,  2,  etc.  Benedict. 


48  A    VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  I. 

were  called  compurgators,  and  their  number  varied 
according  to  the  importance  of  the  subject  in  dispute, 
or  the  nature  of  the  crime  Avith  which  a  person  was 
charged.52  In  some  cases  the  concurrence  of  no  less 
than  three  hundred  of  these  auxiliary  witnesses  was 
requisite  to  acquit  the  person  accused.53  But  even  this 
device  was  found  to  be  ineffectual.  It  was  a  point  of 
honour  with  every  man  in  Europe,  during  several  ages, 
not  to  desert  the  chief  on  whom  he  depended,  and  to 
stand  by  those  with  whom  the  ties  of  blood  connected 
him.  Whoever  then  was  bold  enough  to  violate  the 
laws  was  sure  of  devoted  adherents,  willing  to  abet  and 
eager  to  serve  him  in  whatever  manner  he  required. 
The  formality  of  calling  eompurgators  proved  an 
apparent,  not  a  real,  security  against  falsehood  and 
perjury ;  and  the  sentences  of  courts,  while  they  con- 
tinued to  refer  every  point  in  question  to  the  oath  of 
the  defendant,  became  so  flagrantly  iniquitous  as  to 
excite  universal  indignation  against  this  method  of 
procedure.54 

Sensible  of  these  defects,  but  strangers  to  the  man 
ner  of  correcting  them  or  of  introducing  a  more  proper 
form,  our  ancestors,  as  an  infallible  method  of  discover- 
ing truth  and  of  guarding  against  deception,  appealed 
to  Heaven,  and  referred  every  point  in  dispute  to  be 
determined,  as  they  imagined,  by  the  decisions  of 
unerring  wisdom  and  impartial  justice.  The  person 
accused,  in  order  to  prove  his  innocence,  submitted  to 
trial,  in  certain  cases,  either  by  plunging  his  arm  in 
boiling  water,  or  by  lifting  a  red-hot  iron  with  his 
naked  hand,  or  by  walking  barefoot  over  burning 
ploughshares,  01  by  other  experiments  equally  perilous 

M  Du  Cange,  Glossar.,  voc.  Jura-  c.  9. 
mentum,  vol.  iii.  p.  1599.  64  Leg.  Longobard.,  lib.  ii.  tit.  5f 

63  Spelman,  Glossar.,  voc.  Assath.  §  34. 
— Gregor.  Turon.,  Hist.,  lib.  yiij, 


SECTION  I.]  STATE    OF   EUROPE.  49 

and  formidable.  On  other  occasions  he  challenged 
his  accuser  to  fight  him  in  single  combat.  All  these 
various  forms  of  trial  were  conducted  with  many  devout 
ceremonies ;  the  ministers  of  religion  were  employed ; 
the  Almighty  was  called  upon  to  interpose  for  the 
manifestation  of  guilt  and  for  the  protection  of  inno- 
cence ;  and  whoever  escaped  unhurt  or  came  off  victo- 
rious was  pronounced  to  be  acquitted  by  the  judgment 
of  God.55 

Among  all  the  whimsical  and  absurd  institutions 
which  owe  their  existence  to  the  weakness  of  human 
reason,  this,  which  submitted  questions  that  affected 
the  property,  the  reputation,  and  the  lives  of  men  to 
the  determination  of  chance  or  of  bodily  strength  and 
address,  appears  to  be  the  most  extravagant  and  pre- 
posterous. There  were  circumstances,  however,  which 
led  the  nations  of  Europe  to  consider  this  equivocal 
mode  of  deciding  any  point  in  contest  as  a  direct 
appeal  to  Heaven  and  a  certain  method  of  discovering 
its  will.  As  men  are  unable  to  comprehend  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  Almighty  carries  on  the  government 
of  the  universe,  by  equal,  fixed,  and  general  laws, 
they  are  apt  to  imagine  that  in  every  case  which  their 
passions  or  interest  render  important  in  their  own  eyes 
the  Supreme  Ruler  of  all  ought  visibly  to  display  his 
power  in  vindicating  innocence  and  punishing  guilt. 
It  requires  no  inconsiderable  degree  of  science  and 
philosophy  to  correct  this  popular  error.  But  the  sen- 
timents prevalent  in  Europe  during  the  Dark  Ages, 
instead  of  correcting,  strengthened  it.  Religion,  for 
several  centuries,  consisted  chiefly  in  believing  the 
legendary  history  of  those  saints  whose  names  crowd 
and  disgrace  the  Romish  calendar.  The  fabulous  tales 
concerning  their  miracles  had  been  declared  authentic 
by  the  bulls  of  popes  and  the  decrees  of  councils ;  they 

'*   Murat.,  Dissertatio  de  Judiciia  Dei,  Antiquit.  Ital..  vol.  iii.  p.  612. 

VOL.    I.  B 


50  A    VIEW    OF    TSE  [SECTION  t 

made  the  groat  subjects  of  the  instructions  which  the 
clergy  offered  to  the  people,  and  were  received  by 
them  with  implicit  credulity  and  admiration.  By 
attending  to  these,  men  were  accustomed  to  believe 
that  the  established  laws  of  nature  might  be  violated 
on  the  most  frivolous  occasions,  and  were  taught  to 
look  rather  for  particular  and  extraordinary  acts  of 
power  under  the  divine  administration  than  to  con- 
template the  regular  progress  and  execution  of  a 
general  plan.  One  superstition  prepared  the  way  for 
another ;  and  whoever  believed  that  the  Supreme  Being 
had  interposed  miraculously  on  those  trivial  occasions 
mentioned  in  legends  could  not  but  expect  his  inter- 
vention in  matters  of  greater  importance,  when  solemnly 
referred  to  his  decision. 

With  this  superstitious  opinion  the  martial  spirit  of 
Europe,  during  the  Middle  Ages,  concurred  in  esta- 
blishing the  mode  of  trial  by  judicial  combat.  To  be 
ready  to  maintain  with  his  sword  whatever  his  lips  had 
uttered  was  the  first  maxim  of  honour  with  every  gentle- 
man. To  assert  their  own  rights  by  force  of  arms,  to 
inflict  vengeance  on  those  who  had  injured  or  affronted 
them,  were  the  distinction  and  pride  of  high-spirited 
nobles.  The  form  of  trial  by  combat,  coinciding  with 
this  maxim,  flattered  and  gratified  these  passions. 
Every  man  was  the  guardian  of  his  own  honour  and  of 
his  own  life ;  the  justice  of  his  cause,  as  well  as  his  future 
reputation,  depended  on  his  own  courage  and  prowess. 
This  mode  of  decision  was  considered,  accordingly,  as 
one  of  the  happiest  efforts  of  wise  policy ;  and  as  soon 
as  it  was  introduced,  all  the  forms  of  trial,  by  fire  or 
water,  and  other  superstitious  experiments,  fell  into 
disuse,  or  were  employed  only  in  controversies  between 
persons  of  inferior  rank.  As  it  was  the  privilege  of  a 
gentleman  to  claim  the  trial  by  combat,  it  was  quickly 
authorized  over  all  Europe,  and  received  in  every 


SECTION  I.]  STATE    OF    EUEOPE.  51 

country  with  equal  satisfaction.  Not  only  questions 
concerning  uncertain  or  contested  facts,  but  general 
and  abstract  points  in  law,  were  determined  by  the 
issue  of  a  combat ;  and  the  latter  was  deemed  a  method 
of  discovering  truth  more  liberal,  as  well  as  more  satis- 
factory, than  that  by  investigation  and  argument.  Not 
only  might  parties  whose  minds  were  exasperated  by 
the  eagerness  and  the  hostility  of  opposition  defy  their 
antagonist  and  require  him  to  make  good  his  charge  or 
to  prove  his  innocence  with  his  sword,  but  witnesses 
who  had  no  interest  in  the  issue  of  the  question,  though 
called  to  declare  the  truth  by  laws  which  ought  to  have 
afforded  them  protection,  were  equally  exposed  to  the 
danger  of  a  challenge,  and  equally  bound  to  assert  the 
veracity  of  their  evidence  by  dint  of  arms.  To  com- 
plete the  absurdities  of  this  military  jurisprudence, 
even  the  character  of  a  judge  was  not  sacred  from  its 
violence.  Any  one  of  the  parties  might  interrupt  a 
judge  when  about  to  deliver  his  opinion ;  might  accuse 
him  of  iniquity  and  corruption  in  the  most  reproachful 
terms,  and,  throwing  down  his  gauntlet,  might  chal- 
lenge him  to  defend  his  integrity  in  the  field  ;  nor  could 
he,  without  infamy,  refuse  to  accept  the  defiance,  or 
decline  to  enter  the  lists  against  such  an  adversary. 

Thus  the  form  of  trial  by  combat,  like  other  abuses, 
spread  gradually,  and  extended  to  all  persons,  and 
almost  to  all  cases.  Ecclesiastics,  women,  minors, 
superannuated  and  infirm  persons,  who  could  not  with 
decency  or  justice  be  compelled  to  take  arms  or  to 
maintain  their  own  cause,  were  obliged  to  produce 
champions,  who  offered  from  affection,  or  were  engaged 
by  rewards,  to  fight  their  battles.  The  solemnities  of 
a  judicial  combat  were  such  as  were  natural  in  an  action 
which  was  considered  both  as  a  formal  appeal  to  God 
and  as  the  final  decision  of  questions  of  the  highest 

moment.      Every   circumstance   relating   to   them   was 

K  2 


52  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  i. 

regulated  by  the  edicts  of  princes,  and  explained  in  the 
comments  of  lawyers,  with  a  minute  and  even  supersti- 
tious accuracy.  Skill  in  these  laws  and  rights  was 
frequently  the  only  science  of  which  warlike  nobles 
boasted,  or  which  they  were  ambitious  to  attain.56 

By  this  barbarous  custom,  the  natural  course  of  pro- 
ceeding, both  in  civil  and  criminal  questions,  was 
entirely  perverted.  Force  usurped  the  place  of  equity 
in  courts  of  judicature,  and  justice  was  banished  from 
her  proper  mansion.  Discernment,  learning,  integrity, 
were  qualities  less  necessary  to  a  judge  than  bodily 
strength  and  dexterity  in  the  use  of  arms.  Daring 
courage  and  superior  vigour  of  address  were  of  more 
moment  towards  securing  the  favourable  issue  of  a  suit 
than  the  equity  of  a  cause  or  the  clearness  .of  the 
evidence.  Men,  of  course,  applied  themselves  to  cul- 
tivate the  talents  which  they  found  to  be  of  greatest 
utility.  As  strength  of  body  and  address  in  arms  were 
no  less  requisite  in  those  lists  which  they  were  obliged 
to  enter  in  defence  of  their  private  rights,  than  in  the 
field  of  battle,  where  they  met  the  enemies  of  their 
country,  it  became  the  great  object  of  education,  as 
well  as  the  chief  employment  of  life,  to  acquire  these 
martial  accomplishments.  The  administration  of  jus- 
tice, instead  of  accustoming  men  to  listen  to  the  voice 
of  equity  or  to  reverence  the  decisions  of  law,  added 
to  the  ferocity  of  their  manners,  and  taught  them  to 
consider  force  as  the  great  arbiter  of  right  and  wrong. 

These  pernicious  effects  of  the  trial  by  combat  were 
so  obvious  that  they  did  not  altogether  escape  the  view 
of  the  unobserving  age  in  which  it  was  introduced.  The 
clergy,  from  the  beginning,  remonstrated  against  it,  as 
repugnant  to  the  spirit  of  Christianity  and  subversive 

56  See   a  curious  discourse  con-      Gloucester,  uncle  to  Richard  II.,  in 
earning  the  laws  of  judicial  combat,      Spelman's  Glossar.,  voc.  Campus. 
bv  Thomas  of  Woodstock,  duke  of 


SECTION  I.]  STATE    OF    EUKOPE.  53 

of  justice  and  order.67  But  the  maxims  and  passions 
which  favoured  it  had  taken  such  hold  of  the  minds  of 
men  that  they  disregarded  admonitions  and  censures 
which  on  other  occasions  would  have  struck  them  with 
terror.  The  evil  was  too  great  and  inveterate  to  yield 
to  that  remedy,  and,  continuing  to  increase,  the  civil 
power  at  length  found  it  necessary  to  interpose.  Con- 
scious, however,  of  their  own  limited  authority,  mon- 
archs  proceeded  with  caution,  and  their  first  attempts 
to  restrain  or  to  set  any  bounds  to  this  practice  were 
extremely  feeble.  One  of  the  earliest  restrictions  of 
this  practice  which  occurs  in  the  history  of  Europe  is 
that  of  Henry  I.  of  England.  It  extended  no  farther 
than  to  prohibit,  the  trial  by  combat  in  questions  con- 
cerning property  of  small  value.58  Louis  VII.  of  France 
imitated  his  example,  and  issued  an  edict  to  the  same 
effect.69  St.  Louis,  whose  ideas  as  a  legislator  were  far 
superior  to  those  of  his  age,  endeavoured  to  introduce  a 
more  perfect  jurisprudence,  and  to  substitute  the  trial 
by  evidence  in  place  of  that  by  combat ;  but  his  regu- 
lations with  respect  to  this  were  confined  to  his  own 
domains;  for  the  great  vassals  of  the  crown  possessed 
such  independent  authority,  and  were  so  fondly  attached 
to  the  ancient  practice,  that  he  had  not  power  to  venture 
to  extend  it  to  the  whole  kingdom.  Some  barons  volun- 
tarily adopted  his  regulations.  The  spirit  of  courts 
of  justice  became  averse  to  the  mode  of  decision  by 
combat,  and  discouraged  it  on  every  occasion.  The 
nobles,  nevertheless,  thought  it  so  honourable  to  depend 
for  the  security  of  their  lives  and  fortunes  on  their  own 
courage  alone,  and  contended  with  so  much  vehemence 
for  the  preservation  of  this  favourite  privilege  of  their 
order,  that  the  successors  of  St.  Louis,  unable  to  oppose 

67  Du  Gauge,  Glossar.,  voc.  Duel-      p.  962. 

lum,  vol.  ii.  p.  1675.  i<9  Onion.,  torn.  i.  p.  16. 

58  Brussel,  Usage  des  Fiefs,  vol.  ii. 


54  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  r 

and  afraid  of  offending  such  powerful  subjects,  were 
obliged  not  only  to  tolerate  but  to  authorize  the  practice 
which  he  had  attempted  to  abolish.60  In  other  coun- 
tries of  Europe,  efforts  equally  zealous  were  employed 
to  maintain  the  established  custom,  and  similar  conces- 
sions were  extorted  from  their  respective  sovereigns, 
It  continued,  however,  to  be  an  object  of  policy  with 
every  monarch  of  abilities  or  vigour,  to  explode  the 
trial  by  combat ;  and  various  edicts  were  issued  for  this 
purpose.  But  the  observation  which  was  made  con- 
cerning the  right  of  private  war  is  equally  applicable 
to  the  mode  of  trial  under  review.  No  custom,  how 
absurd  soever  it  may  be,  if  it  has  subsisted  long,  or 
derived  its  source  from  the  manners  and  prejudices  of 
the  age  in  which  it  prevails,  was  ever  abolished  by  the 
bare  promulgation  of  laws  and  statutes.  The  senti- 
ments of  the  people  must  change,  or  some  new  power 
sufficient  to  counteract  the  prevalent  custom  must  be 
introduced.  Such  a  change  accordingly  took  place 
in  Europe,  as  science  gradually  increased  and  society 
advanced  towards  more  perfect  order.  In  proportion 
as  the  prerogative  of  princes  extended  and  came  to 
acquire  new  force,  a  power  interested  in  suppressing 
every  practice  favourable  to  the  independence  of  the 
nobles  was  introduced.  The  struggle,  nevertheless, 
subsisted  for  several  centuries  :  sometimes  the  new 
regulations  and  ideas  seemed  to  gain  ground;  some- 
times ancient  habits  recurred ;  and  though,  upon  the 
whole,  the  trial  by  combat  went  more  and  more  into 
disuse,  yet  instances  of  it  occur  as  late  as  the  sixteenth 
century,  in  the  history  both  of  France  and  of  England. 
In  proportion  as  it  declined,  the  regular  administration 
of  justice  was  restored,  the  proceedings  of  courts  were 
directed  by  known  laws,  the  study  of  these  became  an 
object  of  attention  to  judges,  and  the  people  of  Europe 

•"•  Ordon.,  torn.  i.  pp.  328,  390,  435. 


SECTION  I.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  55 

advanced  fast  towards  civility  when  this  great  cause  of 
the  ferocity  of  their  manners  was  removed.61 

3.  By  authorizing  the  right  of  appeal  from  the  courts 
of  the  barons  to  those  of  the  king,  and  subjecting  the 
decisions  of  the  former  to  the  review  of  the  latter,  a 
new  step,  not  less  considerable  than  those  which  I  have 
already  mentioned,  was  taken  towards  establishing  the 
regular,  consistent,  and  vigorous  administration'  of  jus- 
tice. Among  all  the  encroachments  of  the  feudal  nobles 
on  the  prerogative  of  their  monarchs,  their  usurping 
the  administration  of  justice  with  supreme  authority, 
both  in  civil  and  criminal  causes,  within  the  precincts 
of  their  own  estates,  was  the  most  singular.  In  other 
nations,  subjects  have  contended  with  their  sovereigns, 
and  have  endeavoured  to  extend  their  own  power  and 
privileges ;  but  in  the  history  of  their  struggles  and 
pretensions  we  discover  nothing  similar  to  this  right 
which  the  feudal  barons  claimed  and  obtained.  It  must 
have  been  something  peculiar  in  their  genius  and  man- 
ners that  suggested  this  idea  and  prompted  them  to 
insist  on  such  a  claim.  Among  the  rude  people  who 
conquered  the  various  provinces  of  the  Roman  empire 
and  established  new  kingdoms  there,  the  passion  of 
resentment,  too  impetuous  to  bear  control,  was  per- 
mitted to  remain  almost  unrestrained  by  the  authority 
of  laws.  The  person  offended,  as  has  been  observed, 
retained  not  only  the  right  of  prosecuting  but  of 
punishing  his  adversary.  To  him  it  belonged  to  inflict 
such  vengeance  as  satiated  his  rage,  or  to  accept  of  such 
satisfaction  as  appeased  it.  But  while  fierce  barbarians 
continued  to  be  the  sole  judges  in  their  own  cause, 
their  enmities  were  implacable  and  immortal :  they  set 
no  bounds  either  to  the  degree  of  their  vengeance  or 
to  the  duration  of  their  resentment.  The  excesses 
which  this  occasioned  proved  so  destructive  of  peace 

XXH, 


56  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  i. 

and  order  in  society  as  to  render  it  necessary  to  devise 
some  remedy.  At  first  recourse  was  had  to  arbitrators, 
who  by  persuasion  or  entreaty  prevailed  on  the  party 
offended  to  accept  of  a  fine  or  composition  from  the 
aggressor  and  to  drop  all  farther  prosecution.  But,  as 
submission  to  persons  who  had  no  legal  or  magisterial 
authority  was  altogether  voluntary,  it  became  necessary 
to  establish  judges,  with  power  sufficient  to  enforce 
their  own  decisions.  The  leader  whom  they  were 
accustomed  to  follow  and  to  obey,  whose  courage  they 
respected  and  in  whose  integrity  they  placed  confi- 
dence, was  the  person  to  whom  a  martial  people  natu- 
rally committed  this  important  prerogative.  Every 
chieftain  was  the  commander  of  his  tribe  in  war,  and 
their  judge  in  peace.  Every  baron  led  his  vassals  to 
the  field,  and  administered  justice  to  them  in  his  hall. 
The  high-spirited  dependants-  would  not  have  recog- 
nized any  other  authority  or  have  submitted  to  any 
other  jurisdiction.  But  in  times  of  turbulence  and 
violence  the  exercise  of  this  new  function  was  attended 
not  only  with  trouble,  but  with  danger.  No  person 
could  assume  the  character  of  a  judge  if  he  did  not 
possess  power  sufficient  to  protect  the  one  party  from 
the  violence  of  private  revenge  and  to  compel  the 
other  to  accept  of  such  reparation  as  he  enjoined.  In 
consideration  of  the  extraordinary  eiforts  which  this 
office  required,  judges,  besides  the  fine  which  they 
appointed  to  be  paid  as  a  compensation  to  the  person  or 
family  who  had  been  injured,  levied  an  additional  sum 
as  a  recompense  -for  their  own  labour ;  and  in  all  the 
feudal  kingdoms  the  latter  was  not  only  as  precisely 
ascertained,  but  as  regularly  exacted,  as  the  former. 

Thus,  by  the  natural  operation  of  circumstances  pecu- 
liar to  the  manners  or  political  state  of  the  feudal  nations, 
separate  and  territorial  jurisdictions  came  not  only  to 
be  established  in  every  kingdom,  but  were  established 


SECTION-  I.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  57 

in  such  a  way  that  the  interest  of  the  barons  concurred 
with  their  ambition  in  maintaining  and  extending  them. 
It  was  not  merely  a  point  of  honour  with  the  feudal 
nobles  to  dispense  justice  to  their  vassals,  but  from  the 
exercise  of  that  power  arose  one  capital  branch  of  their 
revenue,  and  the  emoluments  of  their  courts  were  fre- 
quently the  main  support  of  their  dignity.  It  was  with 
infinite  zeal  that  they  asserted  and  defended  this  high 
privilege  of  their  order.  By  this  institution,  however, 
every  kingdom  in  Europe  was  split  into  as  many  separate 
principalities  as  it  contained  powerful  barons.  Their 
vassals,  whether  in  peace  or  in  war,  were  hardly  sensible 
of  an  authority  but  that  of  their  immediate  superior  lord. 
They  felt  themselves  subject  to  no  other  command.  They 
were  amenable  to  no  other  jurisdiction.  The  ties  which 
linked  together  these  smaller  confederacies  became  close 
and  firm;  the  bonds  of  public  union  relaxed,  or  were 
dissolved.  The  nobles  strained  their  invention  in  de- 
vising regulations  which  tended  to  ascertain  and  per- 
petuate this  distinction.  In  order  to  guard  against  any 
appearance  of  subordination  in  their  courts  to  those  of 
the  crown,  they  frequently  constrained  their  monarchs 
to  prohibit  the  royal  judges  from  entering  their  terri- 
tories or  from  claiming  any  jurisdiction  there ;  and  if, 
either  through  mistake  or  from  the  spirit  of  encroach- 
ment, any  royal  judge  ventured  to  extend  his  authority 
to  the  vassals  of  a  baron,  they  might  plead  their  right  of 
exemption  and  the  lord  of  whom  they  held  could  not 
only  rescue  them  out  of  his  hands,  but  was  entitled  to 
legal  reparation  for  the  injury  and  affront  offered  to 
him.  The  jurisdiction  of  the  royal  judges  scarcely 
reached  beyond  the  narrow  limits  of  the  king's  demesnes. 
Instead  of  a  regular  gradation  of  courts,  all  acknowledg- 
ing the  authority  of  the  same  general  laws  and  looking 
up  to  these  as  the  guides  of  their  decisions,  there  were 
in  every  feudal  kingdom  a  number  of  independent  tribu- 


58  A   VIEW   OF    THE  [SECTION  i, 

nal.s,  the  proceedings  of  which  were  directed  by  local 
customs  and  contradictory  forms.  The  collision  of  juris- 
diction among  these  different  courts  often  retarded  the 
execution  of  justice ;  the  variety  and  caprice  of  their 
modes  of  procedure  must  have  forever  kept  the  adminis- 
tration of  it  from  attaining  any  degree  of  uniformity  or 
perfection. 

All  the  monarchs  of  Europe  perceived  these  encroach- 
ments on  their  jurisdiction,  and  bore  them  with  im- 
patience. But  the  usurpations  of  the  nobles  were  so 
firmly  established,  and  the  danger  of  endeavouring  to 
overturn  them  by  open  force  was  so  manifest,  that  kings 
were  obliged  to  remain  satisfied  with  attempts  to  under- 
mine them.  Various  expedients  were  employed  for  this 
purpose,  each  of  which  merits  attention,  as  they  mark 
the  progress  of  law  and  equity  in  the  several  kingdoms 
of  Europe.  At  first,  princes  endeavoured  to  circum- 
scribe the  jurisdiction  of  the  barons,  by  contending  that 
they  ought  to  take  cognizance  only  of  smaller  offences, 
reserving  those  of  greater  moment,  under  the  appellation 
of  pleas  of  the  crown  and  royal  causes,  to  be  tried  in  the 
king's  courts.  This,  however,  affected  only  the  barons 
of  inferior  note  ;  the  more  powerful  nobles  scorned  such 
a  distinction,  and  not  only  claimed  unlimited  jurisdiction, 
but  obliged  their  sovereigns  to  grant  them  charters  con- 
veying or  recognizing  this  privilege  in  the  most  ample 
form.  The  attempt,  nevertheless,  was  productive  of 
some  good  consequences,  and  paved  the  way  for  more. 
It  turned  the  attention  of  men  towards  a  jurisdiction 
distinct  from  that  of  the  baron  whose  vassals  they  were ; 
it  accustomed  them  to  the  pretensions  of  superiority 
which  the  crown  claimed  over  territorial  judges,  and 
taught  them,  when  oppressed  by  their  own  superior 
lord,  to  look  up  to  their  sovereign  as  their  protector. 
This  facilitated  the  introduction  of  appeals,  by  which 
princes  brought  the  decisions  of  the  barons'  courts  under 


SECTION  i.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  59 

the  review  of  the  royal  judges.  While  trial  by  combat 
subsisted  in  full  vigour,  no  point  decided  according  to 
that  mode  could  be  brought  under  the  review  of  another 
court.  It  had  been  referred  to  the  judgment  of  God ; 
the  issue  of  battle  had  declared  his  will ;  and  it  would 
have  been  impious  to  have  called  in  question  the  equity 
of  the  divine  decision.  But  as  soon  as  that  barbarous 
custom  began  to  fall  into  disuse,  princes  encouraged  the 
vassals  of  the  barons  to  sue  for  redress  by  appealing  to 
the  royal  courts.  The  progress  of  this  practice,  how- 
ever, was  slow  and  gradual.  The  first  instances  of 
appeals  were  on  account  of  the  delay  or  the  refusal  of 
justice  in  the  barons'  court ;  and,  as  these  were  counte- 
nanced by  the  ideas  of  subordination  in  the  feudal  con- 
stitution, the  nobles  allowed  them  to  be  introduced 
without  much  opposition.  But  when  these  were  followed 
by  appeals  on  account  of  the  injustice  or  iniquity  of  the 
sentence,  the  nobles  then  began  to  be  sensible  that  if  this 
innovation  became  general  the  shadow  of  power  alone 
would  remain  in  their  hands,  and  all  real  authority  and 
jurisdiction  would  centre  in  those  courts  which  possessed 
the  right  of  review.  They  instantly  took  the  alarm, 
remonstrated  against  the  encroachment,  and  contended 
boldly  for  their  ancient  privileges.  But  the  monarchs 
in  the  different  kingdoms  of  Europe  pursued  their  plan 
with  steadiness  and  prudence.  Though  forced  to  suspend 
their  operations  on  some  occasions,  and  seemingly  to 
yield  when  any  formidable  confederacy  of  their  vassals 
united  against  them,  they  resumed  their  measures  as 
soon  as  they  observed  the  nobles  to  bo  remiss  or  feeble, 
and  pushed  them  with  vigour.  They  appointed  the 
royal  courts,  which  originally  were  ambulatory  and  irre- 
gular with  respect  to  their  times  of  meeting,  to  be  held 
in  a  fixed  place  and  at  stated  seasons.  They  were 
solicitous  to  name  judges  of  more  distinguished  abilities 
than  such  as  usually  presided  in  the  court«  of  barons. 


60  A    VIEW   OF    THE  [SECTION  I. 

Thoy  added  dignity  to  their  character  and  splendour  to 
their  assemblies.  They  laboured  to  render  their  forms 
regular  and  their  decrees  consistent.  Such  judicatories 
became,  of  course,  the  objects  of  public  confidence  as 
well  as  veneration.  The  people,  relinquishing  the  tri- 
bunals of  their  lords,  were  eager  to  bring  every  subject 
of  contest  under  the  more  equal  and  discerning  eye  of 
those  whom  their  sovereign  had  chosen  to  give  judg- 
ment in  his  name.  Thus  kings  became  once  more  the 
heads  of  the  community,  and  the  dispensers  of  justice 
to  their  subjects.  The  barons,  in  some  kingdoms,  ceased 
to  exercise  their  right  of  jurisdiction,  because  it  sunk 
into  contempt ;  in  others  it  was  circumscribed  by  such 
regulations  as  rendered  it  innocent,  or  it  was  entirely 
abolished  by  express  statutes.  Thus  the  administration 
of  justice,  taking  its  rise  from  one  source  and  following 
one  direction,  held  its  course  in  every  state  with  more 
uniformity  and  with  greater  force.62 

VI.  The  forms  and  maxims  of  the  canon  law,  which 
were  become  universally  respectable,  from  their  authority 
in  the  spiritual  courts,  contributed  not  a  little  towards 
those  improvements  in  jurisprudence  which  I  have 
enumerated.  If  we  consider  the  canon  law  politically, 
and  view  it  either  as  a  system  framed  on  purpose  to 
assist  the  clergy  in  usurping  powers  and  jurisdiction 
no  less  repugnant  to  the  nature  of  their  function  than 
inconsistent  with  the  order  of  government,  or  as  the 
chief  instrument  in  establishing  the  dominion  of  the 
popes,  which  shook  the  throne  and  endangered  the  liber- 
ties of  every  kingdom  in  Europe,  we  must  pronounce  it 
one  of  the  most  formidable  engines  ever  formed  against 
the  happiness  of  civil  society.  But  if  we  contemplate 
it  merely  as  a  code  of  laws  respecting  the  rights  and 
property  of  individuals,  and  attend  only  to  the  civil 
effects  of  its  decisions  concerning  these,  it  will  appear 

"-'  Note  XXIII. 


SECTION  i.J  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  61 

ill  a  different  and  a  much  more  favourable  light.  Iii 
ages  of  ignorance  and  credulity  the  ministers  of  religion 
are  the  objects  of  superstitious  veneration.  When  the 
barbarians  who  overran  the  Eoman  empire  first  embraced 
the  Christian  faith,  they  found  the  clergy  in  possession 
of  considerable  power;  and  they  naturally  transferred 
to  those  new  guides  the  profound  submission  and  rever- 
ence which  they  were  accustomed  to  yield  to  the  priests 
of  that  religion  which  they  had  forsaken.  They  deemed 
their  persons  to  be  equally  sacred  with  their  function, 
and  would  have  considered  it  as  impious  to  subject  them 
to  the  profane  jurisdiction  of  the  laity.  The  clergy 
were  not  blind  to  these  advantages  which  the  weakness 
of  mankind  afforded  them.  They  established  courts, 
in  which  every  question  relating  to  their  own  character, 
their  function,  or  their  property,  was  tried.  They 
pleaded  and  obtained  an  almost  total  exemption  from 
the  authority  of  civil  judges.  Upon  different  pretexts 
and  by  a  multiplicity  of  artifices,  they  communicated 
this  privilege  to  so  many  persons,  and  extended  their 
jurisdiction  to  such  a  variety  of  cases,  that  the  greater 
part  of  those  affairs  which  give  rise  to  contest  and 
litigation  was  drawn  under  the  cognizance  of  the 
spiritual  courts. 

But,  in  order  to  dispose  the  laity  to  suffer  these  usur- 
pations without  murmur  or  opposition,  it  was  necessary 
to  convince  them  that  the  administration  of  justice 
would  be  rendered  more  perfect  by  the  establishment 
of  this  new  jurisdiction.  This  was  not  a  difficult  under- 
taking at  that  period,  when  ecclesiastics  carried  on  their 
encroachments  with  the  greatest  success.  That  scanty 
portion  of  science  which  served  to  guide  men  in  the 
ages  of  darkness  was  almost  entirely  engrossed  by  the 
clergy.  They  alone  were  accustomed  to  read,  to  inquire, 
and  to  reason.  Whatever  knowledge  of  ancient  juris- 
prudence had  been  preserved,  either  by  tradition,  or 


62  A   VIEW   OF    THE  [SECTION  i. 

iti  such  books  as  had  escaped  the  destructive  rage  of 
barbarians,  was  possessed  by  them.  Upon  the  maxims 
of  that  excellent  system  they  founded  a  code  of  laws 
consonant  to  the  great  principles  of  equity.  Being 
directed  by  fixed  and  known  rules,  the  forms  of  their 
courts  were  ascertained,  and  their  decisions  beoame 
uniform  and  consistent.  Nor  did  they  want  authority 
sufficient  to  enforce  their  sentences.  Excommunication 
and  other  ecclesiastical  censures  were  punishments  more 
formidable  than  any  that  civil  judges  could  inflict  in 
support  of  their  decrees. 

It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that  ecclesiastical  juris- 
prudence should  become  such  an  object  of  admiration 
and  respect  that  exemption  from  civil  jurisdiction  was 
courted  as  a  privilege  and  conferred  as  a  reward.  It 
is  not  surprising  that,  even  to  a  rude  people,  the  maxims 
of  the  canon  law  should  appear  more  equal  and  just  than 
those  of  the  ill-digested  jurisprudence  which  directed 
all  proceedings  in  civil  courts.  According  to  the  latter, 
the  differences  between  contending  barons  were  termi- 
nated, as  in  a  state  of  nature,  by  the  sword ;  according 
to  the  former,  every  matter  was  subjected  to  the  decision 
of  laws.  The  one,  by  permitting  judicial  combats,  left 
chance  and  force  to  be  arbiters  of  right  or  wrong,  of 
truth  or  falsehood ;  the  other  passed  judgment  with 
respect  to  these  by  the  maxims  of  equity  and  the  tes- 
timony of  witnesses.  Any  error  or  iniquity  in  a  sentence 
pronounced  by  a  baron  to  whom  feudal  jurisdiction 
belonged  was  irremediable,  because  originally  it  was 
subject  to  the  review  of  no  superior  tribunal;  the  eccle- 
siastical law  established  a  regular  gradation  of  courts, 
through  all  which  a  cause  might  be  carried  by  appeal, 
until  it  was  determined  by  that  authority  which  was 
held  to  be  supreme  in  the  Church.  Thus  the  genius  and 
principles  of  the  canon  law  prepared  men  for  approving 
those  three  great  alterations  in  the  feudal  jurisprudence 


]  STATE  or  EUBOPE.  68 

which  I  have  mentioned.  But  it  was  not  with  respect  to 
these  points  alone  that  the  canon  law  suggested  improve- 
ments beneficial  to  society.  Many  of  the  regulations 
now  deemed  the  barriers  of  personal  security  or  the 
safeguards  of  private  property  are  contrary  to  the  spirit 
and  repugnant  to  the  maxims  of  the  civil  jurisprudence 
known  in  Europe  during  several  centuries,  and  were 
borrowed  from  the  rules  and  practice  of  the  ecclesiastical 
courts.  By  observing  the  wisdom  and  equity  of  the 
decisions  in  these  courts,  men  began  to  perceive  the 
necessity  either  of  deserting  the  martial  tribunals  of  the 
barons,  or  of  attempting  to  reform  them.63 

YTI.  The  revival  of  the  knowledge  and  study  of  the 
Eoman  law  co-operated  with  the  causes  which  I  have 
mentioned  in  introducing  more  just  and  liberal  ideas 
concerning  the  nature  of  government  and  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice.  Among  the  calamities  which  the 
devastations  of  the  barbarians  who  broke  in  upon  the 
empire  brought  upon  mankind,  one  of  the  greatest  was 
their  overturning  the  system  of  Eoman  jurisprudence, 
the  noblest  monument  of  the  wisdom  of  that  great 
people,  formed  to  subdue  and  to  govern  the  world. 
The  laws  and  regulations  of  a  civilized  community 
were  repugnant  to  the  manners  and  ideas  of  these 
fierce  invaders.  They  had  respect  to  objects  of  which 
a  rude  people  had  no  conception,  and  were  adapted  to 
a  state  of  society  with  which  they  were  entirely  un- 
acquainted. For  this  reason,  wherever  they  settled,  the 
Eoman  jurisprudence  soon  sunk  into  oblivion,  and  lay 
buried  for  some  centuries  under  the  load  of  those  institu- 
tions which  the  inhabitants  of  Europe  dignified  with  the 
name  of  laws.  But  towards  the  middle  of  the  twelfth, 
century  a  copy  of  Justinian's  Pandects  was  accidentally 
discovered  in  Italy.  By  that  time  the  state  of  society 
was  so  far  advanced,  and  the  ideas  of  men  so  much 
63  Note  XXIV. 


64  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  i. 

enlarged  and  improved  by  the  occurrences  of  several 
centuries  during  which  they  had  continued  in  political 
union,  that  they  were  struck  with  admiration  of  a  system 
which  their  ancestors  could  not  comprehend.  Though 
they  had  not  hitherto  attained  such  a  degree  of  refine- 
ment as  to  acquire  from  the  ancients  a  relish  for  true 
philosophy  or  speculative  science,  though  they  were 
still  insensible  in  a  great  degree  to  the  beauty  and 
elegance  of  classical  composition,  they  were  sufficiently 
qualified  to  judge  with  respect  to  the  merit  of  their 
system  of  laws,  in  which  all  the  points  most  interesting 
to  mankind  were  settled  with  discernment,  precision, 
and  equity.  All  men  of  letters  studied  this  new 
science  with  eagerness ;  and  within  a  few  years  after 
the  discovery  of  the  Pandects,  professors  of  civil  law 
were  appointed,  who  taught  it  publicly  in  most  countries 
of  Europe. 

The  effects  of  having  such  an  excellent  model  to 
study  and  to  imitate  were  immediately  perceived.  Men, 
as  soon  as  they  were  acquainted  with  fixed  and  general 
laws,  perceived  the  advantage  of  them,  and  became 
impatient  to  ascertain  the  principles  and  forms  by  which 
judges  should  regulate  their  decisions.  Such  was  the 
ardour  with  which  they  carried  on  an  undertaking  of  so 
great  importance  to  society  that  before  the  close  of  the 
twelfth  century  the  feudal  law  was  reduced  into  a 
regular  system ;  the  code  of  canon  law  was  enlarged 
and  methodised ;  and  the  loose,  uncertain  customs  of 
different  provinces  or  kingdoms  were  collected  and 
arranged  with  an  order  and  accuracy  acquired  from  the 
knowledge  of  Eoman  jurisprudence.  In  some  countries 
of  Europe  the  Eoman  law  was  adopted  as  subsidiary 
to  their  own  municipal  law,  and  all  cases  to  whicb 
the  latter  did  not  extend  were  decided  according  to 
the  principles  of  the  former.  In  others  the  maxims 
as  well  as  forms  of  Eoman  jurisprudence  mingled 


SECTION  i.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  65 

imperceptibly  with  the  laws  of  the  country,  and  had  a 
powerful,  though  less  sensible,  influence  in  improving 
and  perfecting  them.64 

These  various  improvements  in  the  system  of  juris- 
prudence and  administration  of  justice  occasioned  a 
change  in  manners,  of  great  importance  and  of  exten- 
sive effect.  They  gave  rise  to  a  distinction  of  profes- 
sions ;  they  obliged  men  to  cultivate  different  talents, 
and  to  aim  at  different  accomplishments,  in  order  to 
qualify  themselves  for  the  various  departments  and 
functions  which  became  necessary  in  society.65  Among 
uncivilised  nations  there  is  but  one  profession  honour- 
able, that  of  arms.  All  the  ingenuity  and  vigour  of  the 
human  mind  are  exerted  in  acquiring  military  skill  or 
address.  The  functions  of  peace  are  few  and  simple, 
and  require  no  particular  course  of  education  or  of 
study  as  a  preparation  for  discharging  them.  This  was 
the  state  of  Europe  during  several  centuries.  Every 
gentleman,  born  a  soldier,  scorned  any  other  occupa- 
tion ;  he  was  taught  no  science  but  that  of  war ;  even 
his  exercises  and  pastimes  were  feats  of  martial  prowess. 
Nor  did  the  judicial  character,  which  persons  of  noble 
birth  were  alone  entitled  to  assume,  demand  any  de- 
gree of  knowledge  beyond  that  which  such  untutored 
soldiers  possessed.  To  recollect  a  few  traditionary 
customs  which  time  had  confirmed  and  rendered  re- 
spectable, to  mark  out  the  lists  of  battle  with  due 
formality,  to  observe  the  issue  of  the  combat,  and 
to  pronounce  whether  it  had  been  conducted  accord- 
ing to  the  laws  of  arms,  included  everything  that  a 
baron,  who  acted  as  a  judge,  found  it  necessary  to 
understand. 

But  when  the  forms  of  legal  proceedings  were  fixed, 


Note  XXV.  History  of  Civil  Society,  part  iv 

**  Dr.  Fergusson's  Essay  on  the      sect.  1. 

VOL.    1.  * 


66  A    VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  i. 

when  the  rules  of  decision  were  committed  to  writing 
and  collected  into  a  body,  law  became  a  science,  the 
knowledge  of  which  required  a  regular  course  of  study, 
together  with  long  attention  to  the  practice  of  courts. 
Martial  and  illiterate  nobles  had  neither  leisure  nor 
inclination  to  undertake  a  task  so  laborious,  as  well  as 
so  foreign  from  all  the  occupations  which  they  deemed 
entertaining,  or  suitable  to  their  rank.  They  gradually 
relinquished  their  places  in  courts  of  justice,  where  their 
ignorance  exposed  them  to  contempt.  They  became 
weary  of  attending  to  the  discussion  of  cases  which 
grew  too  intricate  for  them  to  comprehend.  Not  only 
the  judicial  determination  of  points  which  were  the 
subject  of  controversy,  but  the  conduct  of  all  legal 
business  and  transactions,  was  committed  to  persons 
trained  by  previous  study  and  application  to  the  know- 
ledge of  law.  An  order  of  men  to  whom  their  fellow- 
citizens  had  daily  recourse  for  advice,  and  to  whom 
they  looked  up  for  decision  in  their  most  important 
concerns,  naturally  acquired  consideration  and  influence 
in  society.  They  were  advanced  to  honours  which  had 
been  considtj-d  hitherto  as  the  peculiar  rewards  of 
military  virtue.  They  were  intrusted  with  offices  of 
the  highest  dignity  and  most  extensive  power.  Thus 
another  profession  than  that  of  arms  came  to  be  intro- 
duced among  the  laity,  and  was  reputed  honourable. 
The  functions  of  civil  life  were  attended  to.  The 
talents  requisite  for  discharging  them  were  cultivated. 
A  new  road  was  opened  to  wealth  and  eminence.  The 
arts  and  virtues  of  peace  were  placed  in  their  proper 
rank  and  received  their  due  recompense.66 

VIII.  While  improvements  so  important  with  respect 
to  the  state  of  society  and  the  administration  of  justice 
gradually  made  progress  in  Europe,  sentiments  more 

*  Note  XXVI. 


SECTION  i.)  STATE    OF    EUKOPE.  67 

liberal  and  generous  had  begun  to  animate  the  nobles. 
These  were  inspired  by  the  spirit  of  chivalry,  which, 
though  considered,  commonly,  as  a  wild  institution,  the 
effect  of  caprice  and  the  source  of  extravagance,  arose 
naturally  from  the  state  of  society  at  that  period,  and 
had  a  very  serious  influence  in  refining  the  manners  of 
the  European  nations.  The  feudal  state  was  a  state  of 
almost  perpetual  war,  rapine,  and  anarchy,  during  which 
the  weak  and  unarmed  were  exposed  to  insults  or  in- 
juries. The  power  of  the  sovereign  was  too  limited  to 
prevent  these  wrongs,  and  the  administration  of  justice 
too  feeble  to  redress  them.  The  most  effectual  pro- 
tection against  violence  and  oppression  was  often  found 
to  be  that  which  the  valour  and  generosity  of  private 
persons  afforded.  The  same  spirit  of  enterprise  which 
had  prompted  so  many  gentlemen  to  take  arms  in 
defence  of  the  oppressed  pilgrims  in  Palestine  incited 
others  to  declare  themselves  the  patrons  and  avengers 
of  injured  innocence  at  home.  When  the  final  re- 
duction of  the  Holy  Land  under  the  dominion  of 
infidels  put  an  end  to  these  foreign  expeditions,  the 
latter  was  the  only  employment  left  for  the  activity  and 
courage  of  adventurers.  To  check  the  insolence  of 
overgrown  oppressors,  to  rescue  the  helpless  from 
captivity,  to  protect  or  to  avenge  women,  orphans, 
and  ecclesiastics,  who  could  not  bear  arms  in  their 
own  defence,  to  redress  wrongs,  and  to  remove  grie- 
vances, were  deemed  acts  of  the  highest  prowess  and 
merit.  Yalour,  humanity,  courtesy,  justice,  honour,  were 
the  characteristic  qualities  of  chivalry.  To  these  was 
added  religion,  which  mingled  itself  with  every  passion 
and  institution  during  the  Middle  Ages,  and,  by  infusing 
a  large  proportion  of  enthusiastic  zeal,  gave  them  such 
force  as  carried  them  to  romantic  excess.  Men  were 
trained  to  knighthood  by  a  long  previous  discipline; 
they  were  admitted  into  the  order  by  solemnities  no 

F    2 


68  A   VIEW   OF    THE  [SECTION  i. 

less  devout  than  pompous ;  every  person  of  noble  birth 
courted  that  honour ;  it  was  deemed  a  distinction  supe- 
rior to  royalty  ;  and  monarchs  were  proud  to  receive  it 
from  the  hands  of  private  gentlemen. 

This  singular  institution,  in  which  valour,  gallantry, 
and  religion  were  so  strangely  blended,  was  wonder 
fully  adapted  to  the  taste  and  genius  of  martial  nobles  ; 
and  its  effects  were  soon  visible  in  their  manners.  War 
was  carried  on  with  less  ferocity,  when  humanity  came 
to  be  deemed  the  ornament  of  knighthood  no  less  than 
courage.  More  gentle  and  polished  manners  were  intro- 
duced, when  courtesy  was  recommended  as  the  most 
amiable  of  knightly  virtues.  Violence  and  oppression 
decreased,  when  it  was  reckoned  meritorious  to  check 
and  to  punish  them.  A  scrupulous  adherence  to  truth, 
with  the  most  religious  attention  to  fulfil  every  engage- 
ment, became  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  a 
gentleman,  because  chivalry  was  regarded  as  the  school 
of  honour  and  inculcated  the  most  delicate  sensibility 
with  respect  to  those  points.  The  admiration  of  these 
qualities,  together  with  the  high  distinctions  and  pre- 
rogatives conferred  on  knighthood  in  every  part  of 
Europe,  inspired  persons  of  noble  birth  on  some  occa- 
sions with  a  species  of  military  fanaticism,  and  led 
them  to  extravagant  enterprises.  But  they  deeply  im- 
printed on  their  minds  the  principles  of  generosity  and 
honour.  These  were  strengthened  by  everything  that 
can  affect  the  senses  or  touch  the  heart.  The  wild 
exploits  of  those  romantic  knights  who  sallied  forth  in 
quest  of  adventures  are  well  known,  and  have  been 
Ideated  with  proper  ridicule.  The  political  and  per- 
manent effects  of  the  spirit  of  chivalry  have  been  less 
observed.  Perhaps  the  humanity  which  accompanies 
all  the  operations  of  war,  the  refinements  of  gallantry, 
and  the  point  of  honour,  the  three  chief  circumstances 
which  distinguish  modern  from  ancient  manners,  may 


SECTION  i.]  STATE    OP    EUROPE.  69 

be  ascribed  in  a  great  measure  to  this  institution,  which 
has  appeared  whimsical  to  superficial  observers,  but  by 
its  effects  has  proved  of  great  benefit  to  mankind.  The 
sentiments  which  chivalry  inspired  had  a  wonderful 
-influence  on  manners  and  conduct  during  the  twelfth, 
thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and  fifteenth  centuries.  They 
were  so  deeply  rooted  that  they  continued  to  operate 
after  the  vigour  and  reputation  of  the  institution  itself 
began  to  decline.  Some  considerable  transactions 
recorded  in  the  following  history  resemble  the  adven- 
turous exploits  of  chivalry  rather  than  the  well-regu- 
lated operations  of  sound  policy.  Some  of  the  most 
eminent  personages  whose  characters  will  be  delineated 
were  strongly  tinctured  with  this  romantic  spirit.  Fran- 
cis I.  was  ambitious  to  distinguish  himself  by  all  the 
qualities  of  an  accomplished  knight,  and  endeavoured 
to  imitate  the  enterprising  genius  of  chivalry  in  war,  as 
well  as  its  pomp  and  courtesy  during  peace.  The  fame 
which  the  French  monarch  acquired  by  these  splendid 
actions  so  far  dazzled  his  more  temperate  rival  that  he 
departed  on  some  occasions  from  his  usual  prudence  and 
moderation,  and  emulated  Francis  in  deeds  of  prowess 
or  of  gallantry.67 

IX.  The  progress  of  science  and  the  cultivation  of 
literature  had  considerable  effect  in  changing  the 
manners  of  the  European  nations  and  introducing  that 
civility  and  refinement  by  which  they  are  now  distin- 
guished. At  the  time  when  their  empire  was  over- 
turned, the  Eomans,  though  they  had  lost  that  correct 
taste  which  has  rendered  the  productions  of  their  an- 
cestors standards  of  excellence  and  models  of  imitation 
for  succeeding  ages,  still  preserved  their  love  of  letters 
and  cultivated  the  arts  with  great  ardour.  But  rude 
barbarians  were  so  far  from  being  struck  with  any 

97  Note  XXVII. 


70  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  i. 

admiration  of  these  unknown  accomplishments  that  they 
despised  them.  They  were  not  arrived  at  that  state  of 
society  when  those  faculties  of  the  human  mind  which 
have  beauty  and  elegance  for  their  objects  begin  to 
unfold  themselves.  They  were  strangers  to  most  of 
those  wants  and  desires  which  are  the  parents  of  in- 
genious invention ;  and,  as  they  did  not  comprehend 
either  the  merit  or  utility  of  the  Eoman  arts,  they  de- 
stroyed the  monuments  of  them,  with  an  industry  not 
inferior  to  that  which  their  posterity  have  since  studied  to 
preserve  or  to  recover  them.  The  convulsions  occasioned 
by  the  settlement  of  so  many  unpolished  tribes  in  the 
empire,  the  frequent  as  well  as  violent  revolutions  in 
every  kingdom  which  they  established,  together  with  the 
interior  defects  in  the  form  of  government  which  they 
introduced,  banished  security  and  leisure,  prevented  the 
growth  of  taste  or  the  culture  of  science,  and  kept 
Europe,  during  several  centuries,  in  that  state  of  ig- 
norance which  has  been  already  described,  I?ut  the 
events  and  institutions  which  I  have  enumerated  pro- 
duced great  alterations  in  society.  As  soon  as  their 
operation,  in  restoring  liberty  and  independence  to  one 
part  of  the  community,  began  to  be  felt,  as  soon  as  they 
began  to  communicate  to  all  the  members  of  society  some 
taste  of  the  advantages  arising  from  commerce,  from 
public  order,  and  from  personal  security,  the  human  mind 
became  conscious  of  powers  which  it  did  not  formerly 
perceive,  and  fond  of  occupations  or  pursuits  of  which 
it  was  formerly  incapable.  Towards  the  beginning  of 
the  twelfth  century  we  discern  the  first  symptoms  of 
its  awakening  from  that  lethargy  in  which  it  had  been 
long  sunk,  and  observe  it  turning  with  curiosity  and 
attention  towards  new  objects. 

The  first  literary  efforts,  however,  of  the  European 
nations  in  the  Middle  Ages  were  extremely  ill  directed. 
Among  nations,  as  well  as  individuals,  the  powers  of 


SECTION  i.J  STATE    OP    EUROPE.  71 

imagination  attain  some  degree  of  vigour  before  the 
intellectual  faculties  are  much  exercised  in  speculative 
or  abstract  disquisition.  Men  are  poets  i-^ore  they  are 
philosophers;  they  feel  with  sensibility,  <*r»d  describe 
with  force,  when  they  have  made  but  little  progress  in 
investigation  or  reasoning.  The  age  of  Homer  and  of 
Hcsiod  long  preceded  that  of  Thales  or  of  Socrates. 
But,  unhappily  for  literature,  our  ancestors,  deviating 
from  this  course  which  nature  points  out,  plunged  at 
once  into  the  depths  of  abstruse  and  metaphysical  in- 
quiry. They  had  been  converted  to  the  Christian  faith 
soon  after  they  settled  in  their  new  conquests.  But 
they  did  not  receive  it  pure ;  the  presumption  of  men 
had  added  to  the  simple  and  instructive  doctrines  of 
Christianity  the  theories  of  a  vain  philosophy,  that 
attempted  to  penetrate  into  mysteries  and  to  decide 
questions  which  the  limited  faculties  of  the  human  mind 
are  unable  to  comprehend  or  to  resolve.  These  over- 
curious  speculations  were  incorporated  with  the  system 
of  religion,  and  came  to  be  considered  as  the  most  es- 
sential part  of  it.  As  soon,  then,  as  curiosity  prompted 
men  to  inquire  and  to  reason,  these  were  the  subjects 
which  first  presented  themselves  and  engaged  their 
attention.  The  scholastic  theology,  with  its  infinite 
train  of  bold  disquisitions,  and  subtile  distinctions 
concerning  points  which  are  not  the  object  of  human 
reason,  was  the  first  production  of  the  spirit  of  inquiry 
after  it  began  to  resume  some  degree  of  activity  and 
vigour  in  Europe.  It  was  not,  however,  this  circum- 
stance alone  that  gave  such  a  strong  turn  to  the  minds 
of  men,  when  they  began  again  to  exercise  talents 
which  they  had  so  long  neglected.  Most  of  the  persons 
who  attempted  to  revive  literature  in  the  twelfth  and 
thirteenth  centuries  had  received  instruction  or  derived 
their  principles  of  science  from  the  Greeks  in  the 
Eastern  empire,  or  from  the  Arabians  in  Spain  and 


72  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  i. 

Africa.  Both  these  people,  acute  and  inquisitive  to 
excess,  had  corrupted  those  sciences  which  they  culti- 
vated. The  former  rendered  theology  a  system  of 
speculative  refinement  or  of  endless  controversy ;  the 
latter  communicated  to  philosophy  a  spirit  of  meta- 
physical and  frivolous  subtlety.  Misled  by  these  guides, 
the  persons  who  first  applied  to  science  were  involved 
in  a  maze  of  intricate  inquiries.  Instead  of  allowing 
their  fancy  to  take  its  natural  range,  and  to  produce 
such  works  of  invention  as  might  have  improved  their 
taste  and  refined  their  sentiments, — instead  of  cultivating 
those  arts  which  embellish  human  life  and  render  it 
comfortable, — they  were  fettered  by  authority,  they  were 
led  astray  by  example,  and  wasted  the  whole  force  of 
their  genius  in  speculations  as  unavailing  as  they  were 
difficult. 

But,  fruitless  and  ill  directed  as  these  speculations 
were,  their  novelty  roused  and  their  boldness  interested 
the  human  mind.  The  ardour  with  which  men  pursued 
these  uninviting  studies  was  astonishing.  Genuine 
philosophy  was  never  cultivated,  in  any  enlightened 
age,  with  more  zeal.  Schools,  upon  the  model  of  those 
instituted  by  Charlemagne,  were  opened  in  every  cathe- 
dral, and  almost  in  every  monastery  of  note.  Colleges 
and  universities  were  erected  and  formed  into  com- 
munities or  corporations,  governed  by  their  own  laws 
and  invested  with  separate  and  extensive  jurisdiction 
over  their  own  members.  A  regular  course  of  studies 
was  planned ;  privileges  of  great  value  were  conferred 
on  masters  and  scholars ;  academical  titles  and  honours 
of  various  kinds  were  invented  as  a  recompense  for  both. 
Nor  was  it  in  the  schools  alone  that  superiority  in  science 
led  to  reputation  and  authority  :  it  became  an  object  of 
respect  in  life,  and  advanced  such  as  acquired  it  to  a 
rank  of  no  inconsiderable  eminence.  Allured  by  all  these 
advantages,  an  incredible  number  of  students  resorted  to 


SECTION  I.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  73 

those  new  seats  of  learning,  and  crowded  with  eagerness 
into  that  new  path  which  was  open  to  fame  and 
distinction. 

But,  how  considerable  soever  these  first  efforts  may 
appear,  there  was  one  circumstance  which  prevented 
the  effects  of  them  from  being  as  extensive  as  they 
naturally  ought  to  have  been.  All  the  languages  in 
Europe,  during  the  period  under  review,  were  bar- 
barous ;  they  were  destitute  of  elegance,  of  force,  and 
even  of  perspicuity.  No  attempt  had  been  hitherto 
made  to  improve  or  to  polish  them.  The  Latin  tongue 
was  consecrated  by  the  Church  to  religion;  custom, 
with  authority  scarcely  less  sacred,  had  appropriated  it 
to  literature.  All  the  sciences  cultivated  in  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries  were  taught  in  Latin;  all  books 
with  respect  to  them  were  written  in  that  language.  It 
would  have  been  deemed  a  degradation  of  any  impor- 
tant subject  to  have  treated  of  it  in  a  modern  language. 
This  confined  science  within  a  very  narrow  circle ;  the 
learned  alone  were  admitted  into  the  temple  of  know- 
ledge ;  the  gate  was  shut  against  all  others,  who  were 
suffered  to  remain  involved  in  their  former  darkness  and 
ignorance. 

But  though  science  was  thus  prevented,  during 
several  ages,  from  diffusing  itself  through  society,  and 
its  influence  was  much  circumscribed,  the  progress  which 
it  made  may  be  mentioned,  nevertheless,  among  the 
great  causes  which  contributed  to  introduce  a  change 
of  manners  into  Europe.  The  ardent  though  ill-judged 
spirit  of  inquiry  which  I  have  described  occasioned  a 
fermentation  of  mind  that  put  ingenuity  and  invention 
in  motion  and  gave  them  vigour.  It  led  men  to  a  new 
employment  of  their  faculties,  which  they  found  to  be 
agreeable  as  well  as  interesting.  It  accustomed  them 
to  exercises  and  occupations  which  tended  to  soften  their 
manners,  and  to  give  them  some  relish  for  the  gentle 


74  A   VIEW   OF    THE  [SECTION  i. 

virtues  peculiar  to  people  among  whom  science  has  been 
cultivated  with  success.68 

X.  The  progress  of  commerce  had  considerable  in- 
fluence in  polishing  the  manners  of  the  European 
nations,  and  in  establishing  among  them  order,  equal 
laws,  and  humanity.  The  wants  of  men  in  the  original 
and  most  simple  state  of  society  are  so  few,  and  their 
desires  so  limited,  that  they  rest  contented  with  the 
natural  productions  of  their  climate  and  soil,  or  with 
what  they  can  add  to  these  by  their  own  rude  industry. 
They  have  no  superfluities  to  dispose  of,  and  few  neces- 
sities that  demand  a  supply.  Every  little  community, 
subsisting  on  its  own  domestic  stock  and  satisfied  with 
it,  is  either  little  acquainted  with  the  states  around 
it,  or  at  variance  with  them.  Society  and  manners 
must  be  considerably  improved,  and  many  provisions 
must  be  made  for  public  order  and  personal  security, 
before  a  liberal  intercourse  can  take  place  between 
different  nations.  We  find,  accordingly,  that  the  first 
effect  of  the  settlement  of  the  barbarians  in  the  empire 
was  to  divide  those  nations  which  the  Eoman  power 
had  united.  Europe  was  broken  into  many  separate 
communities.  The  intercourse  between  these  divided 
states  ceased  almost  entirely  during  several  centuries. 
Navigation  was  dangerous  in  seas  infested  by  pirates ; 
nor  could  strangers  trust  to  a  friendly  reception  in  the 
ports  of  uncivilized  nations.  Even  between  distant 
parts  of  the  same  kingdom  the  communication  was  rare 
and  difficult.  The  lawless  rapine  of  banditti,  together 
with  the  avowed  exactions  of  the  nobles,  scarcely  less 
formidable  and  oppressive,  rendered  a  journey  of  any 
length  a  perilous  enterprise.  Fixed  to  the  spot  in 
which  they  resided,  the  greater  part  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Europe  lost,  in  a  great  measure,  the  knowledge  of 

68  Note  XXVIII, 


SECTION  I.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  75 

remote  regions,  and  were  unacquainted  with  their 
names,  their  situations,  their  climates,  and  their  com- 
modities.69 

Various  causes,  however,  contributed  to  revive  the 
spirit  of  commerce,  and  to  renew,  in  some  degree,  the 
intercourse  between  different  nations.  The  Italians, 
by  their  connection  with  Constantinople  and  other  cities 
of  the  Greek  empire,  had  preserved  in  their  own 
country  considerable  relish  for  the  precious  commodities 
and  curious  manufactures  of  the  East.  They  com- 
municated some  knowledge  of  these  to  the  countries 
contiguous  to  Italy.  But  this  commerce  being  ex- 
tremely limited,  the  intercourse  which  it  occasioned 
between  different  nations  was  not  considerable.  The 
crusades,  by  leading  multitudes  from  every  corner  of 
Europe  into  Asia,  opened  a  more  extensive  communica- 
tion between  the  East  and  West,  which  subsisted  for 
two  centuries ;  and  though  the  object  of  these  expedi- 
tions was  conquest,  and  not  commerce,  though  the  issue 
of  them  proved  as  unfortunate  as  the  motives  for  under- 
taking them  were  wild  and  enthusiastic,  their  com- 
mercial effects,  as  hath  been  shown,  were  both  beneficial 
and  permanent.  During  the  continuance  of  the.  crusades, 
the  great  cities  in  Italy,  and  in  other  countries  of  Europe, 
acquired  liberty,  and  together  with  it  such  privileges  as 
rendered  them  respectable  and  independent  communities. 
Thus,  in  every  state  there  was  formed  a  new  order  of 
citizens,  to  whom  commerce  presented  itself  as  their 
proper  object  and  opened  to  them  a  certain  path  to 
wealth  and  consideration.  Soon  after  the  close  of  the 
holy  war,  the  mariner's  compass  was  invented,  which, 
by  rendering  navigation  more  secure,  encouraged  it  to 
become  more  adventurous,  facilitated  the  communica- 
tion between  remote  nations,  and  brought  them  nearer  to 
each  other. 

69  Note  XXIX. 


76  A    VIEW    OP    THE  [sEcriON  I. 

The  Italian  states,  during  the  same  period,  estab- 
lished a  regular  commerce  with  the  East  in  the  ports 
of  Egypt,  and  drew  from  thence  all  the  rich  products 
of  the  Indies.  They  introduced  into  their  own  terri- 
tories manufactures  of  various  kinds,  and  carried  them 
on  with  great  ingenuity  and  vigour.  They  attempted 
new  arts,  and  transplanted  from  warmer  climates,  to 
which  they  had  been  hitherto  deemed  peculiar,  several 
natural  productions  which  now  furnish  the  materials 
of  a  lucrative  and  extended  commerce.  All  these 
commodities,  whether  imported  from  Asia  or  produced 
by  their  own  skill,  they  disposed  of  to  great  advantage 
among  the  other  people  of  Europe,  who  began  to  ac- 
quire some  taste  for  an  elegance  in  living  unknown  to 
their  ancestors,  or  despised  by  them.  During  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  the  commerce  of 
Europe  was  almost  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  Italians, 
more  commonly  known  in  those  ages  by  the  name  of 
Lombards.  Companies  or  societies  of  Lombard  mer- 
chants settled  in  every  different  kingdom.  They  were 
taken  under  the  immediate  protection  of  the  several 
governments.  They  enjoyed  extensive  privileges  and 
immunities.  The  operation  of  the  ancient  barbarous 
laws  concerning  strangers  was  suspended  with  respect 
to  them.  They  became  the  carriers,  the  manufacturers, 
and  the  bankers  of  all  Europe. 

While  the  Italians,  in  the  South  of  Europe,  were 
cultivating  trade  with  such  industry  and  success,  the 
commercial  spirit  awakened  in  the  North  towards  the 
middle  of  the  thirteenth  century.  As  the  nations 
around  the  Baltic  were  at  that  time  extremely  bar- 
barous, and  infested  that  sea  with  their  piracies,  the 
cities  of  Lubec  and  Hamburg,  soon  after  they  began 
to  open  some  trade  with  these  people,  found  it  neces- 
sary to  enter  into  a  league  of  mutual  defence.  They 
derived  such  advantages  from  this  union  that  other 


SECTIO.V  i.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  77 

towns  acceded  to  their  confederacy,  and  in  i  short  time 
eighty  of  the  most  considerable  cities  scattored  through 
those  extensive  countries  which  stretch  from  the  bottom 
of  the  Baltic  to  Cologne  on  the  Ehine  joined  in  the 
famous  Hanseatic  league,  which  became  so  formidable 
that  its  alliance  was  courted  and  its  enmity  was 
dreaded  by  the  greatest  monarchs.  The  members  of 
this  powerful  association  formed  the  first  systematic 
plan  of  commerce  known  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  con- 
ducted it  by  common  laws  enacted  in  their  general 
assemblies.  They  supplied  the  rest  of  Europe  with 
naval  stores,  and  pitched  on  different  towns,  the  most 
eminent  of  which  was  at  Bruges  in  Flanders,  where 
they  established  staples  in  which  their  commerce  was 
regularly  carried  on.  Thither  the  Lombards  brought 
the  productions  of  India,  together  with  the  manufactures 
of  Italy,  and  exchanged  them  for  the  more  bulky  but 
not  less  useful  commodities  of  the  North.  The  Han- 
seatic merchants  disposed  of  the  cargoes  which  they 
received  from  the  Lombards  in  the  ports  of  the  Baltic, 
or  carried  them  up  the  great  rivers  into  the  interior 
parts  of  Germany. 

This  regular  intercourse  opened  between  the  nations 
in  the  North  and  South  of  Europe  made  them  sensible 
of  their  mutual  wants,  and  created  such  new  and  in- 
creasing demands  for  commodities  of  every  kind  that  it 
excited  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  Netherlands  a  more 
vigorous  spirit  in  carrying  on  the  two  great  manu- 
factures of  wool  and  flax,  which  seem  to  have  been 
considerable  in  that  country  as  early  as  the  age  of 
Charlemagne.  As  Bruges  became  the  centre  of  com- 
munication between  the  Lombard  and  Hanseatic  mer- 
chants, the  Flemings  traded  with  both  in  that  city  to 
such  extent,  as  well  as  advantage,  as  spread  among  them 
a  general  habit  of  industry,  which  long  rendered 
Flanders  and  the  adjacent  provinces  the  most  opulent, 


78  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  I. 

the   most   populous,  and    best    cultivated   countries   in 
Europe. 

Struck  with  the  flourishing  state  of  these  provinces? 
of  which  he  discerned  the  true  cause,  Edward  III.  of 
England  endeavoured  to  excite  a  spirit  of  industry 
among  his  own  subjects,  who,  blind  to  the  advantages 
of  their  situation,  and  ignorant  of  the  source  from  which 
opulence  was  destined  to  flow  into  their  country,  were 
so  little  attentive  to  their  commercial  interests  as  hardly 
to  attempt  those  manufactures,  the  materials  of  which 
they  furnished  to  foreigners.  By  alluring  Flemish 
artisans  to  settle  in  his  dominions,  as  well  as  by  many 
wise  laws  for  the  encouragement  and  regulation  of  trade, 
Edward  gave  a  beginning  to  the  woollen  manufactures 
of  England,  and  first  turned  the  active  and  enterprising 
genius  of  his  people  towards  those  arts  which  have 
raised  the  English  to  the  highest  rank  among  commercial 
nations. 

This  increase  of  commerce  and  of  intercourse  between 
nations,  how  inconsiderable  soever  it  may  appear  in 
respect  of  their  rapid  and  extensive  progress  during 
the  last  and  present  age,  seems  wonderfully  great  when 
we  compare  it  with  the  state  of  both  in  Europe  previous 
to  the  twelfth  century.  It  did  not  fail  of  producing 
great  effects.  Commerce  tends  to  wear  off  those  pre- 
judices which  maintain  distinction  and  animosity  be- 
tween nations.  It  softens  and  polishes  the  manners  of 
men.  It  unites  them  by  one  of  the  strongest  of  all  ties, 
the  desire  of  supplying  their  mutual  wants.  It  disposes 
them  to  peace,  by  establishing  in  every  state  an  order  of 
citizens  bound  by  their  interests  to  be  the  guardians  of 
public  tranquillity.  As  soon  as  the  commercial  spirit 
acquires  vigour  and  begins  to  gain  an  ascendant  in  any 
society,  we  discover  a  new  genius  in  its  policy,  its 
alliances,  its  wars,  and  its  negotiations.  Conspicuous 
proofs  of  this  occur  in  the  history  of  the  Italian  states, 


SECTION  L]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  79 

of  the  Hanseatic  league,  and  the  cities  of  the  Nether- 
lands during  the  period  under  review.  In  proportion  as 
commerce  made  its  way  into  the  different  countries  of 
Europe,  they  successively  turned  their  attention  to  those 
objects  and  adopted  those  manners  which  occupy  and 
distinguish  Dolished  nations.70 

10  Note 


SECTION    II. 

YiKW  OF  THE  PROGRESS  OF  'SOCIETY  IN  EUROPE  WITH 
RESPECT  TO  THE  COMMAND  OF  THE  NATIONAL 
FORCE  REQUISITE  IX  FOREIGN  OPERATIONS. 

Improved  State  of  Society  at  the  Beginning  of  the  Fifteenth  Century. — 
The  Concentration  of  Resources  in  European  States. — The  Power  of 
Monarchs :  their  Revenues  and  Armies. — Affairs  of  Different  States 
at  first  entirely  distinct. — Progress  of  Combination. — Loss  of  Con- 
tinental Territory  by  the  English. — Effects  upon  the  French  Monarchy. 
— Growth  of  Standing  Armies,  and  of  the  Royal  Prerogative  under 
Louis  XI. — His  Example  imitated  in  England  and  hi  Spain. — The 
Heiress  of  Burgundy. — Perfidious  Conduct  of  Louis  XI.  towards  her. 
— Her  Marriage  with  Maximilian,  Archduke  of  Austria. — Invasion 
of  Italy  by  Charles  VIII. — The  Balance  of  Power. — Use  of  Infantry 
in  Armies. — League  of  Cambray  against  Venice. 

SUCH  are  the  events  and  institutions  which,  by  their 
powerful  operation,  contributed  gradually  to  introduce 
regular  government  and  polished  manners  in  the  various 
nations  of  Europe.  When  we  survey  the  state  of 
society,  or  the  character  of  individuals,  at  the  opening 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  then  turn  back  to  view  the 
condition  of  both  at  the  time  when  the  barbarous  tribes 
which  overturned  the  Roman  power  completed  their 
settlement  in  their  new  conquests  the  progress  which 
mankind  had  made  towards  order  and  refinement  will 
appear  immense. 

Government,  however,  was  still  far  from  having 
attained  that  state  in  which  extensive  monarchies  act 
with  the  united  vigour  of  the  whole  community,  or  carry 
on  great  undertakings  with  perseverance  and  success. 
Small  tribes  or  communities,  even  in  their  rudest  state, 
may  operate  in  concert  and  exert  their  utmost  force. 
They  are  excited  to  act,  not  by  the  distant  objects  or 
the  refined  speculations  which  interest  or  affect  men  in 


SECTION  II. J  A  VIEW  OF   THE   STATE   OF  EUROPE.  81 

polished  societies,  but  by  their  present  feelings.  The 
insults  of  an  enemy  kindle  resentment ;  the  success  of 
a  rival  tribe  awakens  emulation :  these  passions  com- 
municate from  breast  to  breast,  and  all  the  members  of 
the  community,  with  united  ardour,  rush  into  the  field 
in  order  to  gratify  their  revenge  or  to  acquire  distinction. 
But  in  widely-extended  states,  such  as  the  great  king- 
doms of  Europe  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, where  there  is  little  intercourse  between  the 
distant  members  of  the  community,  and  where  every 
great  enterprise  requires  previous  concert  and  long  pre- 
paration, nothing  can  rouse  and  call  forth  their  united 
strength  but  the  absolute  command  of  a  despot  or  the 
powerful  influence  of  regular  policy.  Of  the  former,  the 
vast  empires  in  the  East  are  an  example  :  the  irresistible 
mandate  of  the  sovereign  reaches  the  most  remote  pro- 
vinces of  his  dominions,  and  compels  whatever  number 
of  his  subjects  he  is  pleased  to  summon  to  follow  his 
standard.  The  kingdoms  of  Europe,  in  the  present  age, 
are  an  instance  of  the  latter :  the  prince,  by  the  less 
violent  but  no  less  effectual  operation  of  laws  and  a  well- 
regulated  government,  is  enabled  to  avail  himself  of  the 
whole  force  of  his  state,  and  to  employ  it  in  enterprises 
which  require  strenuous  and  persevering  efforts. 

But  at  the  opening  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  poli- 
tical constitution  in  all  the  kingdoms  of  Europe  was 
very  different  from  either  of  these  states  of  government. 
The  several  monarchs,  though  they  had  somewhat  en- 
larged the  boundaries  of  prerogative  by  successful 
encroachments  on  the  immunities  and  privileges  of  the 
nobility,  were  possessed  of  an  authority  extremely 
limited.  The  laws  and  interior  police  of  kingdoms, 
though  much  improved  by  the  various  events  and  regu- 
lations which  I  have  enumerated,  were  still  feeble  and 
imperfect.  In  every  country,  a  numerous  body  of 
nobles,  who  continued  to  be  formidable  notwithstand- 

VOL.    I.  O 


82  A   VIEW    OF    THE  (.SECTION  n. 

ing  the  various  expedients  employed  to  depress  them, 
watched  all  the  motions  of  their  sovereign  with  a  jealous 
attention  which  set  bounds  to  his  ambition,  and  either 
prevented  his  forming  schemes  of  extensive  enterprise, 
or  obstructed  the  execution  of  them. 

The  ordinary  revenues  of  every  prince  were  so  ex- 
tremely small  as  to  be  inadequate  to  any  great  under- 
taking. He  depended  for  extraordinary  supplies  on  the 
good  will  of  his  subjects,  who  granted  them  often  with  a 
reluctant,  and  always  with  a  sparing,  hand. 

As  the  revenues  of  princes  were  inconsiderable,  the 
armies  which  they  could  bring  into  the  field  were  unfit 
for  long  and  effectual  service.  Instead  of  being  able 
to  employ  troops  trained  to  skill  in  arms,  and  to  military 
subordination,  by  regular  discipline,  monarchs  were 
obliged  to  depend  on  such  forces  as  their  vassals  con- 
ducted to  their  standard  in  consequence  of  their  military 
tenures.  These,  as  they  were  bound  to  remain  under 
arms  only  for  a  short  time,  could  not  march  far  from 
their  usual  place  of  residence,  and,  being  more  attached 
to  the  lord  of  whom  they  held  than  to  the  sovereign 
whom  they  served,  were  often  as  much  disposed  to 
counteract  as  to  forward  his  schemes.  Nor  were  they, 
even  if  they  had  been  more  subject  to  the  command  of 
the  monarch,  proper  instruments  to  carry  into  execution 
any  great  and  arduous  enterprise.  The  strength  of  an 
army,  formed  either  for  conquest  or  defence,  lies  in 
infantry.  To  the  stability  and  discipline  of  their 
legions,  consisting  chiefly  of  infantry,  the  Eomans, 
during  the  times  of  the  republic,  were  indebted  for  their 
victories;  and  when  their  descendants,  forgetting  the 
institutions  which  had  led  them  to  universal  dominion, 
so  far  altered  their  military  system  as  to  place  their 
principal  confidence  in  a  numerous  cavalry,  the  undisci- 
plined impetuosity  of  the  barbarous  nations,  who  f ought, 
mostly  on  foot,  was  sufficient,  as  I  have  already  ob- 


(SECTION  n.j  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  83 

served,  to  overcome  them.  These  nations,  soon  after 
they  settled  in  their  new  conquests,  uninstructed  by  the 
fatal  error  of  the  Romans,  relinquished  the  customs  of 
their  ancestors,  and  converted  the  chief  force  of  their 
armies  into  cavalry.  Among  the  Eomans  this  change 
was  occasioned  by  the  effeminacy  of  their  troops,  who 
could  not  endure  the  fatigues  of  service  which  their 
more  virtuous  and  hardy  ancestors  had  sustained  with 
ease.  Among  the  people  who  established  the  new 
monarchies  into  which  Europe  was  divided,  this  innova- 
tion in  military  discipline  seems  to  have  flowed  from  the 
pride  of  the  nobles,  who,  scorning  to  mingle  with  per- 
sons of  inferior  rank,  aimed  at  being  distinguished  from 
them  in  the  field  as  well  as  during  peace.  The  institution 
of  chivalry,  and  the  frequency  of  tournaments,  in  which 
knights,  in  complete  armour,  entered  the  lists  on  horse- 
back with  extraordinary  splendour,  displaying  amazing 
address,  force,  and  valour,  brought  cavalry  into  still 
greater  esteem.  The  fondness  for  that  service  increased  to 
such  a  degree  that  during  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
centuries  the  armies  of  Europe  were  composed  almost 
entirely  of  cavalry.  No  gentleman  would  appear  in  the 
field  but  on  horseback.  To  serve  in  any  other  manner 
he  would  have  deemed  derogatory  to  his  rank.  The 
cavalry,  by  way  of  distinction,  was  called  the  battle,  and 
on  it  alone  depended  the  fate  of  every  action.  The 
infantry,  collected  from  the  dregs  and  refuse  of  the 
people,  ill  armed  and  worse  disciplined,  was  almost  of  no 
account. 

As  these  circumstances  rendered  the  operations  of 
particular  kingdoms  less  considerable  and  less  vigorous, 
so  they  long  kept  the  princes  of  Europe  from  giving 
such  attention  to  the  schemes  and  transactions  of  their 
neighbours  as  might  lead  them  to  form  any  regular 
system  of  public  security.  They  were,  of  consequence, 
prevented  from  uniting  in  confederacy,  or  from  acting 


G   2 


84  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  n. 

with  concert,  in  order  to  establish  such  a  distribution 
and  balance  of  power  as  should  hinder  any  state  from 
rising  to  a  superiority  which  might  endanger  the  general 
liberty  and  independence.  During  several  centuries, 
the  nations  of  Europe  appear  to  have  considered  them- 
selves as  separate  societies,  scarcely  connected  together 
by  any  common  interest,  and  little  concerned  in  each 
other's  affairs  or  operations.  An  extensive  commerce 
did  not  afford  them  an  opportunity  of  observing  and 
penetrating  into  the  schemes  of  every  different  state. 
They  had  not  ambassadors  residing  constantly  in  every 
court,  to  watch  and  give  early  intelligence  of  all  its 
motions.  The  expectation  of  remote  advantages,  or 
the  prospect  of  distant  and  contingent  evils,  was  not 
sufficient  to  excite  nations  to  take  arms.  Such  only  as 
were  within  the  sphere  of  immediate  danger,  and  un- 
avoidably exposed  to  injury  or  insult,  thought  them- 
selves interested  in  any  contest  or  bound  to  take  pre- 
cautions for  their  own  safety. 

Whoever  records  the  transactions  of  any  of  the  more 
considerable  European  states  during  the  two  last  cen- 
turies must  write  the  history  of  Europe.  Its  various 
kingdoms,  throughout  that  period,  have  been  formed 
into  one  great  system,  so  closely  united  that,  each  hold- 
ing a  determinate  station,  the  operations  of  one  are  so 
felt  by  all  as  to  influence  their  counsels  and  regulate 
their  measures.  But  previous  to  the  fifteenth  century, 
unless  when  vicinity  of  territory  rendered  the  occasions 
of  discord  frequent  and  unavoidable,  or  when  national 
emulation  fomented  or  embittered  the  spirit  of  hostility, 
the  affairs  of  different  countries  are  seldom  interwoven 
with  each  other.  In  each  kingdom  of  Europe  great 
events  and  revolutions  happened,  which  the  other  powers 
beheld  with  almost  the  same  indifference  as  if  they  had 
been  uninterested  spectators,  to  whom  the  effect  of  these 
transactions  could  never  extend. 


SECTION  IL]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  85 

During  the  violent  struggles  between  France  and 
England,  and  notwithstanding  the  alarming  progress 
which  was  made  towards  rendering  one  prince  the 
master  of  both  these  kingdoms,  hardly  one  measure 
which  can  be  considered  as  the  result  of  a  sagacious 
and  prudent  policy  was  formed  in  order  to  guard  against 
an  event  so  fatal  to  Europe.  The  Dukes  of  Burgundy 
and  Bretagne,  whom  their  situation  would  not  permit 
to  remain  neutral,  engaged,  it  is  true,  in  the  contest ; 
but  in  taking  their  part  they  seem  rather  to  have  fol- 
lowed the  impulse  of  their  passions  than  to  have  been 
guided  by  any  just  discernment  of  the  danger  which 
threatened  themselves  and  the  tranquillity  of  Europe. 
The  other  princes,  seemingly  unaffected  by  the  alternate 
successes  of  the  contending  parties,  left  them  to  decide 
the  quarrel  by  themselves,  or  interposed  only  by  feeble 
and  ineffectual  negotiations. 

Notwithstanding  the  perpetual  hostilities  in  which  the 
various  kingdoms  of  Spain  were  engaged  during  several 
centuries,  and  the  successive  occurrences  which  visibly 
tended  to  unite  that  part  of  the  continent  into  one  great 
monarchy,  the  princes  of  Europe  hardly  took  any  step 
from  which  we  may  conclude  that  they  gave  a  proper 
attention  to  that  important  event.  They  permitted 
a  power  to  arise  imperceptibly,  and  to  acquire  strength 
there,  which  soon  became  formidable  to  all  its  neigh- 
bours. 

Amidst  the  violent  convulsions  with  which  the  spirit 
of  domination  in  the  see  of  Eome,  and  the  turbulent 
ambition  of  the  German  nobles,  agitated  the  empire, 
neither  the  authority  of  the  popes,  seconded  by  all 
their  artifices  and  intrigues,  nor  the  solicitations  of  the 
emperors,  could  induce  any  of  the  powerful  monarchs 
in  Europe  to  engage  in  their  quarrel,  or  to  avail  them- 
selves of  many  favourable  opportunities  of  interposing 
with  effect  and  advantage. 


86  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  n. 

This  amazing  inactivity  during  transactions  so  inte- 
resting is  not  to  be  imputed  to  any  incapacity  of  dis- 
cerning their  political  consequences.  The  power  of 
judging  with  sagacity,  and  of  acting  with  vigour,  is  the 
portion  of  men  of  every  age.  The  monarchs  who 
reigned  in  the  different  kingdoms  of  Europe,  during 
several  centuries,  were  not  blind  to  their  particular  in- 
terest, negligent  of  the  public  safety,  or  strangers  to 
the  method  of  securing  both.  If  they  did  not  adopt 
that  salutary  system  which  teaches  modern  politicians 
to  take  the  alarm  at  the  prospect  of  distant  dangers, 
which  prompts  them  to  check  the  first  encroachments 
of  any  formidable  power,  and  which  renders  each  state 
the  guardian,  in  some  degree,  of  the  rights  and  inde- 
pendence of  all  its  neighbours,  this  was  owing  entirely 
to  such  imperfections  and  disorders  in  the  civil  govern- 
ment of  each  country  as  made  it  impossible  for  sove- 
reigns to  act  suitably  to  those  ideas  which  the  posture  of 
affairs  and  their  own  observation  must  have  suggested. 

But  during  the  course  of  the  fifteenth  century  various 
events  happened  which,  by  giving  princes  more  entire 
command  of  the  force  in  their  respective  dominions, 
rendered  their  operations  more  vigorous  and  extensive. 
In  consequence  of  this,  the  affairs  of  different  kingdoms 
becoming  more  frequently  as  well  as  more  intimately 
connected,  they  were  gradually  accustomed  to  act  in 
concert  and  confederacy,  and  were  insensibly  prepared 
for  forming  a  system  of  policy  in  order  to  establish 
or  to  preserve  such  a  balance  of  power  as  was  most 
consistent  with  the  general  security.  It  was  during 
the  reign  of  Charles  Y.  that  the  ideas  on  which  this 
sj^stem  is  founded  first  came  to  be  fully  understood.  It 
was  then  that  the  maxims  by  which  it  has  been  uni- 
formly maintained  since  that  era  were  universally 
adopted.  On  this  account,  a  view  of  the  causes  and 
events  which  contributed  to  establish  a  plan  of  policy 


SECTION  ii.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  87 

more  salutary  and  extensive  than  any  that  has  taken 
place  in  the  conduct  of  human  affairs  is  not  only  a 
necessary  introduction  to  the  following  work,  but  is  a 
capital  object  in  the  history  of  Europe. 

The  first  event  that  occasioned  any  considerable 
alteration  in  the  arrangement  of  affairs  in  Europe  was 
the  annexation  of  the  extensive  territories  which  Eng- 
land possessed  on  the  continent  to  the  crown  of  France. 
While  the  English  were  masters  of  several  of  the  most 
fertile  and  opulent  provinces  in  France,  and  a  great 
part  of  its  most  martial  inhabitants  was  bound  to  follow 
their  standard,  an  English  monarch  considered  himself 
rather  as  the  rival  than  as  the  vassal  of  the  sovereign 
of  whom  he  held.  The  kings  of  France,  circumscribed 
and  thwarted  in  their  schemes  and  operations  by  an 
adversary  no  less  jealous  than  formidable,  durst  not 
enter  upon  any  enterprise  of  importance  or  of  difficulty. 
The  English  were  always  at  hand,  ready  to  oppose  them. 
They  disputed  even  their  right  to  their  crown,  and, 
being  able  to  penetrate  with  ease  into  the  heart  of  the 
kingdom,  could  arm  against  them  those  very  hands 
which  ought  to  have  been  employed  in  their  defence. 
Timid  counsels  and  feeble  efforts  were  natural  to  mon- 
archs  in  such  a  situation.  France,  dismembered  and 
overawed,  could  not  attain  its  proper  station  in  the 
system  of  Europe.  But  the  death  of  Henry  Y.  of 
England,  happily  for  France,  and  not  unfortunately  for 
his  own  country,  delivered  the  French  from  the  calamity 
of  having  a  foreign  master  seated  on  their  throne.  The 
weakness  of  a  long  minority,  the  dissensions  in  the 
English  court,  together  with  the  unsteady  and  languid 
conduct  which  these  occasioned,  afforded  the  French  a 
favourable  opportunity  of  recovering  the  territories 
which  they  had  lost.  The  native  valour  of  the  French 
nobility,  heightened  to  an  enthusiastic  confidence  by 
a  supposed  interposition  of  Heaven  in  their  behalf, 


88  A    VIEW    OF   THE  [SECTION  it. 

conducted  in  the  field  by  skilful  leaders,  and  directed  in 
the  cabinet  by  a  prudent  monarch,  was  exerted  with  such 
vigour  and  success,  during  this  favourable  juncture,  as 
not  only  wrested  from  the  English  their  new  conquests, 
but  stripped  them  of  their  ancient  possessions  in  France, 
and  reduced  them  within  the  narrow  precincts  of  Calais 
and  its  petty  territory. 

As  soon  as  so  many  considerable  provinces  were  re- 
united to  their  dominions,  the  kings  of  France,  con- 
scious of  this  acquisition  of  strength,  began  to  form 
bolder  schemes  of  interior  policy  as  well  as  of  foreign 
operations.  They  immediately  became  formidable  to 
their  neighbours,  who  began  to  fix  their  attention  on 
their  measures  and  motions,  the  importance  of  which 
they  fully  perceived.  From  this  era,  France,  possessed 
of  the  advantages  which  it  derives  from  the  situation 
and  contiguity  of  its  territories,  as  well  as  from  the 
number  and  valour  of  its  people,  rose  to  new  influence 
in  Europe,  and  was  the  first  power  in  a  condition  to  give 
alarm  to  the  jealousy  or  fears  of  the  states  around  it. 

Nor  was  France  indebted  for  this  increase  of  impor- 
tance merely  to  the  reunion  of  the  provinces  which 
had  been  torn  from  it.  A  circumstance  attended  the 
recovery  of  these  which,  though  less  considerable  and 
less  observed,  contributed  not  a  little  to  give  additional 
vigour  and  decision  to  all  the  efforts  of  that  monarchy. 
During  the  obstinate  struggles  between  France  and 
England,  all  the  defects  of  the  military  system  under 
the  feudal  government  were  sensibly  felt.  A  war  of 
long  continuance  languished,  when  carried  on  by 
troops  bound  and  accustomed  to  keep  the  field  only  for 
a  short  time.  Armies  composed  chiefly  of  heavy- 
armed  cavalry  were  unfit  either  for  the  defence  or  the 
attack  of  the  many  towns  and  castles  which  it  became 
necessary  to  guard  or  to  reduce.  In  order  to  obtain 
such  permanent  and  effective  force  as  became  requisite 


SECTION  ii.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  89 

during  these  lengthened  contests,  the  kings  of  France 
took  into  their  pay  considerable  hands  of  mercenary 
soldiers,  levied  sometimes  among  their  own  subjects, 
and  sometimes  in  foreign  countries.  But,  as  the  feudal 
policy  provided  no  sufficient  fund  for  such  extraor- 
dinary service,  these  adventurers  were  dismissed  at  the 
close  of  every  campaign,  or  upon  any  prospect  of 
accommodation ;  and,  having  been  little  accustomed 
to  the  restraints  of  discipline,  they  frequently  turned 
their  arms  against  the  country  which  they  had  been 
hired  to  defend,  and  desolated  it  with  cruelty  not 
inferior  to  that  of  its  foreign  enemies. 

A  body  of  troops  kept  constantly  on  foot,  and  regu- 
larly trained  to  military  subordination,  would  have 
supplied  what  was  wanting  in  the  feudal  constitution, 
and  have  furnished  princes  with  the  means  of  executing 
enterprises  to  which  they  were  then  unequal.  Such  an 
establishment,  however,  was  so  repugnant  to  the  genius 
of  feudal  policy,  and  so  incompatible  with  the  privileges 
and  pretensions  of  the  nobility,  that  during  several 
centuries  no  monarch  was  either  so  bold  or  so  powerful 
as  to  venture  on  any  step  towards  introducing  it.  At 
last,  Charles  VII.,  availing  himself  of  the  reputation 
which  he  had  acquired  by  his  successes  against  the 
English,  and  taking  advantage  of  the  impressions  of 
terror  which  such  a  formidable  enemy  had  left  upon  the 
minds  of  his  subjects,  executed  that  which  his  prede- 
cessors durst  not  attempt.  Under  pretence  of  having 
ahvays  ready  a  force  sufficient  to  defend  the  kingdom 
against  any  sudden  invasion  of  the  English,  he,  at  the 
time  when  he  disbanded  his  other  troops,  retained  under 
arms  a  body  of  nine  thousand  cavalry  and  of  sixteen 
thousand  infantry.  He  appropriated  funds  for  the 
regular  payment  of  these ;  he  stationed  them  in 
different  places  of  the  kingdom,  according  to  his 
pleasure,  and  appointed  the  officers  who  commanded 


90  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  n. 

and  disciplined  them.  The  prime  nobility  courted 
this  service,  in  which  they  were  taught  to  depend  on 
their  sovereign,  to  execute  his  orders,  and  to  look  up 
to  him  as  the  judge  and  re  warder  of  their  merit.  The 
feudal  militia,  composed  of  the  vassals  whom  the  nobles 
could  call  out  to  follow  their  standard,  as  it  was  in  no 
degree  comparable  to  a  body  of  soldiers  regularly  trained 
to  war,  sunk  gradually  in  reputation.  The  strength  of 
an  army  was  no  longer  estimated  solely  by  the  number 
of  cavalry  which  served  in  it.  From  the  time  that 
gunpowder  was  invented,  and  the  use  of  cannon  in  the 
field  became  general,  horsemen  cased  in  complete  armour 
lost  all  the  advantages  which  gave  them  the  pre- 
eminence over  other  soldiers.  The  helmet,  the  shield, 
md  the  breastplate,  which  resisted  the  arrow  or  the 
spear,  no  longer  afforded  them  security  against  these 
new  instruments  of  destruction.  The  service  of  infantry 
rose  again  into  esteem,  and  victories  were  gained,  and 
conquests  made,  chiefly  by  their  efforts.  The  nobles 
and  their  military  tenants,  though  sometimes  summoned 
to  the  field,  according  to  ancient  form,  were  "considered 
as  an  incumbrance  upon  the  troops  with  which  they 
acted,  and  were  viewed  with  contempt  by  soldiers 
accustomed  to  the  vigorous  and  steady  operations  of 
regular  service. 

Thus  the  regulations  of  Charles  VII.,  by  establishing 
the  first  standing  army  known  in  Europe,  occasioned 
an  important  revolution  in  its  affairs  and  policy.  By 
taking  from  the  nobles  the  sole  direction  of  the  national 
military  force,  which  had  raised  them  to  such  high 
authority  and  importance,  a  deep  wound  was  given  to 
the  feudal  aristocracy,  in  that  part  where  its  power 
seemed  to  be  most  complete. 

France,  by  forming  this  body  of  regular  troops,  at  a 
time  when  there  was  hardly  a  squadron  or  company 
kept  in  constant  pay  in  any  other  part  of  Europe, 


SECTION  ii.]  STATE    OF    EUEOPE.  91 

acquired  such  advantages  over  its  neighbours,  either  in 
attack  or  defence,  that  self-preservation  made  it  neces- 
sary for  them  to  imitate  its  example.  Mercenary  troops 
were  introduced  into  all  the  considerable  kingdoms  on 
the  continent.  They  gradually  became  the  only  military 
force  that  was  employed  or  trusted.  It  has  long  been 
the  chief  object  of  policy  to  increase  and  to  support  them. 
It  has  long  been  the  great  aim  of  princes  and  ministers  to 
discredit  and  to  annihilate  all  other  means  of  national 
activity  or  defence. 

As  the  kings  of  France  got  the  start  of  other  powers 
in  establishing  a  military  force  in  their  dominions,  which 
enabled  them  to  carry  on  foreign  operations  with  more 
vigour  and  to  greater  extent,  so  they  were  the  first  who 
effectually  broke  the  feudal  aristocracy  and  humbled  the 
great  vassals  of  the  crown,  who  by  their  exorbitant 
power  had  long  circumscribed  the  royal  prerogative 
within  very  narrow  limits  and  had  rendered  all  the 
efforts  of  the  monarchs  of  Europe  inconsiderable.  Many 
things  concurred  to  undermine,  gradually,  the  power  of 
the  feudal  aristocracy  in  France.  The  wealth  and  pro- 
perty of  the  nobility  were  greatly  impaired  during  the 
long  wars  which  the  kingdom  was  obliged  to  maintain 
with  the  English.  The  extraordinary  zeal  with  which 
they  exerted  themselves  in  defence  of  their  country 
against  its  ancient  enemies  exhausted  entirely  the  for- 
tunes of  some  great  families.  As  almost  every  province 
in  the  kingdom  was  in  its  turn  the  seat  of  war,  the 
lands  of  others  were  exposed  to  the  depredations  of  the 
enemy,  were  ravaged  by  the  mercenary  troops  which 
their  sovereigns  hired  occasionally  but  could  not  pay,  or 
were  desolated  with  rage  still  more  destructive  by  the 
peasants,  in  different  insurrections.  At  the  same  time, 
the  necessities  of  government  having  forced  their  kings 
upon  the  desperate  expedient  of  making  great  and 
sudden  alterations  in  the  current  coin  of  the  kingdom, 


92  A    VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  u. 

the  fines,  quit-rents,  and  other  payments  fixed  by  ancient 
custom  sunk  much  in  value,  and  the  revenues  of  a  fief 
were  reduced  far  below  the  sum  which  it  had  once 
yielded.  During  their  contests  with  the  English,  in 
which  a  generous  nobility  courted  every  station  where 
danger  appeared  or  honour  could  be  gained,  many 
families  of  note  became  extinct,  and  their  fiefs  were 
reunited  to  the  crown.  Other  fiefs,  in  a  long  course  of 
years,  fell  to  female  heirs,  and  were  divided  among 
them,  were  diminished  by  profuse  donations  to  the 
Church,  or  were  broken  and  split  by  the  succession  of 
remote  collateral  heirs.1 

Encouraged  by  these  manifest  symptoms  of  decline 
in  that  body  which  he  wished  to  depress,  Charles  VII., 
during  the  first  interval  of  peace  with  England,  made 
several  efforts  towards  establishing  the  regal  prerogative 
on  the  ruins  of  the  aristocracy.  But  his  obligations  to 
the  nobles  were  so  many,  as  well  as  recent,  and  their 
services  in  recovering  the  kingdom  so  splendid,  as 
rendered  it  necessary  for  him  to  proceed  with  modera- 
tion and  caution.  Such,  however,  was  the  authority 
which  the  crown  had  acquired  by  the  progress  of  its 
arms  against  the  English,  and  so  much  was  the  power 
of  the  nobility  diminished,  that,  without  any  opposi- 
tion, he  soon  made  innovations  of  great  consequence 
in  the  constitution.  He  not  only  established  that 
formidable  body  of  regular  troops  which  has  been 
mentioned,  but  he  was  the  first  monarch  of  France 
who  by  his  royal  edict,  without  the  concurrence  of  the 
states-general  of  the  kingdom,  levied  an  extraordinary 
subsidy  on  his  people.  He  prevailed  likewise  with  his 
subjects  to  render  several  taxes  perpetual  which  had 
formerly  been  imposed  occasionally  and  exacted  during 
a  short  time.  By  means  of  all  these  innovations  he 
acquired  such  an  increase  of  power,  and  extended  his 

1  Boulainvilliers,  Histoire  clu  Gouvernement  de  France,  Lettre  xii 


SECTION  ii.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  93 

prerogative  so  far  beyond  its  ancient  limits,  that,  from 
being  the  most  dependent  prince  who  had  ever  sat 
upon  the  throne  of  France,  he  came  to  possess,  during 
the  latter  years  of  his  reigri,  a  degree  of  authority  which 
none  of  his  predecessors  had  enjoyed  for  several  ages.2 

That  plan  of  humbling  the  nobility  which  Charles 
b.egan  to  execute,  his  son  Louis  XT.  carried  on  with  a 
bolder  spirit  and  with  greater  success.  Louis  was 
formed  by  nature  to  be  a  tyrant;  and  at  whatever 
period  he  had  been  called  to  ascend  the  throne,  his 
reign  must  have  abounded  with  schemes  to  oppress  his 
people  and  to  render  his  own  power  absolute.  Subtle, 
unfeeling,  cruel,  a  stranger  to  every  principle  of  integ- 
rity, and  regardless  of  decency,  he  scorned  all  the  re- 
straints which  a  sense  of  honour  or  the  desire  of  fame 
imposes  even  upon  ambitious  men.  Sagacious,  at  the 
same  time,  to  discern  what  he  deemed  his  true  interest, 
and  influenced  by  that  alone,  he  was  capable  of  pursu- 
ing it  with  a  persevering  industry,  and  of  adhering  to 
it  with  a  systematic  spirit,  from  which  no  object  could 
divert  and  no  danger  could  deter  him. 

The  maxims  of  his  administration  were  as  profound 
as  they  were  fatal  to  the  privileges  of  the  nobility.  He 
filled  all  the  departments  of  government  with  new  men, 
and  often  with  persons  whom  he  called  from  the  lowest 
as  well  as  the  most  despised  functions  in  life  and  raised 
at  pleasure  to  stations  of  great  power  or  trust.  These 
were  his  only  confidants,  whom  he  consulted  in  form- 
ing his  plans,  and  to  whom  he  committed  the  execution 
of  them ;  while  the  nobles,  accustomed  to  be  the  com- 
panions, the  favourites,  and  the  ministers  of  their  sove- 
reigns, were  treated  with  such  studied  and  mortifying 
neglect  that,  if  they  would  not  submit. to  follow  a  court 

2  Histoire   de   France  par  Velly      de  la  Monarchic  Fran§oise,  torn,  iii 
et  Viilaret,  torn.  xv.  pp.   331,  etc.,      p.  162. 
389  ;  torn.  xvi.  p.  324. — Variations 


94  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  n. 

in  which  they  appeared  Avithout  any  shadow  of  their 
ancient  power,  they  were  obliged  to  retire  to  their 
castles,  where  they  remained  unemployed  and  forgotten. 
Kot  satisfied  with  having  rendered  the  nobles  of  less 
consideration  by  taking  out  of  their  hands  the  sole 
direction  of  affairs,  Louis  added  insult  to  neglect,  and, 
by  violating  their  most  valuable  privileges,  endeavoured 
to  degrade  the  order  and  to  reduce  the  members  of  it 
to  the  same  level  with  other  subjects.  Persons  of  the 
highest  rank  among  them,  if  so  bold  as  to  oppose  his 
schemes  or  so  unfortunate  as  to  awaken  the  jealousy  of 
his  capricious  temper,  were  persecuted  with  rigour  from 
which  all  who  belonged  to  the  order  of  nobility  had 
hitherto  been  exempt ;  they  were  tried  by  judges  who 
had  no  right  to  take  cognizance  of  their  actions,  and 
were  subjected  to  torture,  or  condemned  to  an  igno- 
minious death,  without  regard  to  their  birth  or  condi- 
tion. The  people,  accustomed  to  see  the  blood  of  the' 
most  illustrious  personages  shed  by  the  hands  of  the 
common  executioner,  to  behold  them  shut  up  in  dun- 
geons and  carried  about  in  cages  of  iron,  began  to  view 
the  nobility  with  less  reverence  than  formerly,  and 
looked  up  with  terror  to  the  royal  authority,  which 
seemed  to  have  humbled  or  annihilated  every  other 
power  in  the  kingdom. 

At  the  same  time,  Louis,  being  afraid  that  oppression 
might  rouse  the  nobles,  whom  the  rigour  of  his  govern- 
ment had  intimidated,  or  that  self-preservation  might 
at  last  teach  them  to  unite,  dexterously  scattered  among 
them  the  seeds  of  discord,  and  industriously  fomented 
those  ancient  animosities  between  the  great  families, 
which  the  spirit  of  jealousy  and  emulation  natiiral  to 
the  feudal  govei-nment  had  originally  kindled  and  still 
kept  alive.  To  accomplish  this,  all  the  arts  of  in- 
trigue, all  the  mysteries  and  refinements  of  his  fraudu- 
lent policy,  were  employed,  and  with  such  success  that, 


IL]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  95 

at  a  juncture  which  required  the  most  strenuous  efforts 
as  well  as  the  most  perfect  union,  the  nobles  never 
acted,  except  during  one  short  sally  of  resentment  at 
the  beginning  of  his  reign,  either  with  vigour  or  in 
concert. 

As  he  stripped  the  nobility  of  their  privileges,  he 
added  to  the  power  and  prerogative  of  the  crown.  In 
order  to  have  at  command  such  a  body  of  soldiers  as 
might  be  sufficient  to  crush  any  force  that  his  disaffected 
subjects  could  draw  together,  he  not  only  kept  on  foot 
the  regular  troops  which  his  father  had  raised,  but,  be- 
sides augmenting  their  number  considerably,  he  took 
into  his  pay  six  thousand  Swiss,  at  that  time  the  best 
disciplined  and  most  formidable  infantry  in  Europe.3 
From  the  jealousy  natural  to  tyrants,  he  confided  in 
these  foreign  mercenaries,  as  the  most  devoted  instru- 
ments of  oppression,  and  the  most  faithful  guardians 
of  the  power  which  he  had  usurped.  That  they  might 
be  ready  to  act  on  the  shortest  warning,  he,  during  the 
latter  years  of  his  reign,  kept  a  considerable  body  of 
them  encamped  in  one  place.4 

Great  funds  were  requisite,  not  only  to  defray  the 
expense  of  this  additional  establishment,  but  to  supply 
the  sums  employed  in  the  various  enterprises  which  the 
restless  activity  of  his  genius  prompted  him  to  under- 
take But  the  prerogative  that  his  father  had  assumed 
of  levying  taxes  without  the  concurrence  of  the  states- 
general,  which  he  was  careful  not  only  to  retain,  but 
to  extend,  enabled  him  to  provide  in  some  measure  for 
the  increasing  charges  of  government. 

What  his  prerogative,  enlarged  as  it  was,  could  not 
furnish,  his  address  procured.  He  was  the  first  monarch 
in  Europe  who  discovered  the  method  of  managing  those 

3  M£m.     de     Comines,     torn.    i.  4  M&n.     de    Coinines,    tou..     i. 

p.   367.— Dan.,  Hist,  de  la  Milice      p.  381. 
Fraii9oi.':e,  tom   i.  p.  182. 


96  A   VIEW    OP    THE  [SHCTIOX  IT. 

great  assemblies  in  which  the  feudal  policy  had  vested 
the  power  of  granting  subsidies  and  of  imposing  taxes. 
He  first  taught  other  princes  the  fatal  art  of  beginning 
their  attack  on  public  liberty  by  corrupting  the  source 
from  which  it  should  flow.  By  exerting  all  his  power 
and  address  in  influencing  the  election  of  representa- 
tives, by  bribing  or  overawing  the  members,  and  by 
various  changes  which  he  artfully  made  in  the  form  of 
their  deliberations,  Louis  acquired  such  entire  direction 
of  these  assemblies  that,  from  being  the  vigilant 
guardians  of  the  privileges  and  property  of  the  people, 
he  rendered  them  tamely  subservient  towards  promoting 
the  most  odious  measures  of  his  reign.5  As  no  power 
remained  to  set  bounds  to  his  exactions,  ho  not  only 
continued  all  the  taxes  imposed  by  his  father,  but  he 
made  great  additions  to  them,  which  amounted  to  a  sum 
that  appeared  astonishing  to  his  contemporaries.6 

Nor  was  it  the  power  alone  or  wealth  of  the  crown 
that  Louis  increased :  he  extended  its  territories  by 
acquisitions  of  various  kinds.  He  got  possession  of 
Eoussillon  by  purchase  ;  Provence  was  conveyed  to  him 
by  the  will  of  Charles  de  Anjou ;  and  upon  the  death 
of  Charles  the  Bold  he  seized  with  a  strong  hand  Bur- 
gundy and  Artois,  which  had  belonged  to  that  prince. 
Thus,  during  the  course  of  a  single  reign  France  was 
formed  into  one  compact  kingdom,  and  the  steady, 
unrelenting  policy  of  Louis  XI.  not  only  subdued  the 
haughty  spirit  of  the  feudal  nobles,  but  established  a 
species  of  government  scarcely  less  absolute  or  less 
terrible  than  Eastern  despotism. 

But,  fatal  as  his  administration  was  to  the  liberties 

8  Mem.  de  Comines,  torn.  i.  Louis  XL  raised  4,700,000.  The 

p.  136. — Chronique  Scandaleuse,  former  had  in  pay  9000  cavalry 

ibid.,  torn.  ii.  p.  71.  and  16,000  infantry.  The  latter 

6  Me'm.  de  Comines,  torn.  i.  augmented  the  cavalry  to  15,000, 

p.  334. —  Charles  VII.  levied  taxes  and  the  infantry  to  25,000.  Ibid., 

to  the  amount,  of  1,800,000  francs ;  torn.  i.  p.  384. 


SECTION  IT/,  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  97 

of  his  subjects,  the  authority  which  he  acquired,  the 
resources  of  which  he  became  master,  and  his  freedom 
from  restraint  in  concerting  his  plans  as  well  as  in 
executing  them,  rendered  his  reign  active  and  enter- 
prising. Louis  negotiated  in  all  the  courts  of  Europe ; 
he  observed  the  motions  of  all  his  neighbours }  he  en- 
gaged, either  as  principal  or  as  an  auxiliary,  in  every 
great  transaction;  his  resolutions  were  prompt,  his 
operations  vigorous ;  and  upon  every  emergence  he 
could  call  forth  into  action  the  whole  force  of  his 
kingdom.  From  the  era  of  his  reign,  the  kings  of 
France,  no  longer  fettered  and  circumscribed  at  home 
by  a  jealous  nobility,  have  exerted  themselves  more 
abroad,  have  formed  more  extensive  schemes  of  foreign 
conquests,  and  have  carried  on  war  with  a  spirit  and 
vigour  long  unknown  in  Europe. 

The  example  which  Louis  set  was  too  inviting  not 
to  be  imitated  by  other  princes.  Henry  YIL,  as  soon 
as  he  was  seated  on  the  throne  of  England,  formed  the 
plan  of  enlarging  his  own  prerogative  by  breaking  the 
power  of  the  nobility.  The  circumstances  under  which 
he  undertook  to  execute  it  were  less  favourable  than 
those  which  induced  Charles  YIL  to  make  the  same 
attempt ;  and  the  spirit  with  which  he  conducted  it  was 
very  different  from  that  of  Louis  XL  Charles,  by  the 
success  of  his  arms  against  the  English,  by  the  merit 
of  having  expelled  them  out  of  so  many  provinces, 
had  established  himself  so  firmly  in  the  confidence 
of  his  people  as  encouraged  him  to  make  bold  en- 
croachments on  the  ancient  constitution.  The  daring 
genius  of  Louis  broke  through  every  barrier,  and  en- 
deavoured to  surmount  or  to  remove  every  obstacle 
that  stood  in  his  way.  But  Henry  held  the  sceptre 
by  a  disputed  title ;  a  popular  faction  was  ready  every 
moment  to  take  arms  against  him ;  and  after  long  civil 
wars,  during  which  the  nobility  had  often  displayed 


08  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  n. 

their  power  in  creating  and  deposing  kings,  he  felt 
that  the  regal  authority  had  been  so  much  relaxed,  and 
that  he  had  entered  into  possession  of  a  prerogative  so 
much  abridged,  as  rendered  it  necessary  to  carry  on 
his  measures  deliberately  and  without  any  violent  ex- 
ertion. He  endeavoured  to  undermine  that  formidable 
structure  which  he  durst  not  attack  by  open  force. 
His  schemes,  though  cautious  and  slow  in  their  opera- 
tion, were  well  concerted,  and  productive  in  the  end 
of  great  effects.  By  his  laws  permitting  the  barons  to 
break  the  entails  of  their  estates  and  expose  them  to 
sale;  by  his  regulations  to  prevent  the  nobility  from 
keeping  in  their  service  those  numerous  bands  of  re- 
tainers, which  rendered  them  formidable  and  turbu- 
lent ;  by  favouring  the  rising  power  of  the  commons ; 
by  encouraging  population,  agriculture,  and  commerce ; 
by  securing  to  his  subjects,  during  a  long  reign,  the 
enjoyment  of  the  blessings  which  flow  from  the  arts 
of  peace;  by  accustoming  them  to  an  administration 
of  government  under  which  the  laws  were  executed 
with  steadiness  and  vigour, — he  made  imperceptibly 
considerable  alterations  in  the  English  constitution, 
and  transmitted  to  his  successor  authority  so  extensive 
as  rendered  him  one  of  the  most  absolute  monarch s  in 
Europe  and  capable  of  the  greatest  and  most  vigorous 
efforts. 

In  Spain,  the  union  of  all  its  crowns  by  the  marriage 
of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  the  glory  that  they  acquired 
by  the  conquest  of  Granada,  which  brought  the  odious 
dominion  of  the  Moors  to  a  period,  the  command  of  the 
great  armies  which  it  had  been  necessary  to  keep  long 
on  foot  in  order  to  accomplish  this,  the  wisdom  and 
steadiness  of  their  administration,  and  the  address  with 
which  they  availed  themselves  of  every  incident  that 
occurred  to  humble  the  nobility  and  to  extend  their 
own  prerogative,  conspired  in  raising  these  monarchs  to 


ii.j  STATE    OF   EUEOPE.  99 

such  eminence  and  authority  as  none  of  their  predeces- 
sors had  ever  enjoyed.  Though  several  causes,  which 
shall  he  explained  in  another  place,  prevented  their 
attaining  the  same  powers  with  the  kings  of  France 
and  England,  and  preserved  the  feudal  constitution 
longer  entire  in  Spain,  their  great  abilities  supplied  the 
defects  of  their  prerogative,  and  improved  with  such 
dexterity  all  the  advantages  which  they  possessed  that 
Ferdinand  carried  on  his  foreign  operations,  which 
were  very  extensive,  with  extraordinary  vigour  and 
effect. 

While  these  princes  were  thus  enlarging  the  bound- 
aries of  prerogative,  and  taking  such  steps  towards 
rendering  their  kingdoms  capable  of  acting  with  union 
and  force,  events  occurred  which  called  them  forth  to 
exert  the  new  powers  which  they  had  acquired.  These 
engaged  them  in  such  a  series  of  enterprises  and  nego- 
tiations that  the  affairs  of  all  the  considerable  nations 
in  Europe  came  to  be  insensibly  interwoven  with  each 
other,  and  a  great  political  system  was  gradually  formed, 
which  grew  to  be  an  object  of  universal  attention. 

The  first  event  which  merits  notice,  on  account  of 
its  influence  in  producing  this  change  in  the  state  of 
Europe,  was  the  marriage  of  the  daughter  of  Charles 
the  Bold,  the  sole  heiress  of  the  house  of  Burgundy. 
For  some  years  before  her  father's  death  she  had  been 
considered  as  the  apparent  successor  to  his  territories, 
and  Charles  had  made  proposals  of  marrying  her  to  several 
different  princes,  with  a  view  of  alluring  them,  by  that 
offer,  to  favour  the  schemes  which  his  restless  ambition 
was  continually  forming. 

This  rendered  the  alliance  with  her  an  object  of 
general  attention ;  and  all  the  advantages  of  acquiring 
possession  of  her  territories,  the  most  opulent  at  that 
time,  and  the  best  cultivated,  of  any  on  this  side  of  the 
Alps,  were  perfectly  understood.  As  soon,  then,  as 


100  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  n. 

the  untimely  death  of  Charles  opened  the  succession, 
the  eyes  of  all  the  princes  in  Europe  were  turned  to- 
wards Mary,  and  they  felt  themselves  deeply  interested 
in  the  choice  which  she  was  about  to  make  of  the  person 
on  whom  she  would  bestow  that  rich  inheritance. 

Louis  XL,  from  whose  kingdom  several  of  the  pro- 
vinces which  she  possessed  had  been  dismembered,  and 
whose  dominions  stretched  along  the  frontier  of  her 
territories,  had  every  inducement  to  court  her  alliance. 
He  had,  likewise,  a  good  title  to  expect  the  favourable 
reception  of  any  reasonable  proposition  he  should  make 
with  respect  to  the  disposal  of  a  princess  who  was  the 
vassal  of  his  crown  and  descended  from  the  royal  blood 
of  France.  There  were  only  two  propositions,  however, 
which  he  could  make  with  propriety.  The  one  was  the 
marriage  of  the  dauphin,  the  other  that  of  the  count  of 
Angouleme,  a  prince  of  the  blood,  with  the  heiress 
of  Burgundy.  By  the  former,  he  would  have  annexed 
all  her  territories  to  his  crown,  and  have  rendered  France 
at  once  the  most  respectable  monarchy  in  Europe.  But 
the  great  disparity  of  age  between  the  two  parties,  Mary 
being  twenty  and  the  dauphin  only  eight  years  old,  the 
avowed  resolution  of  the  Flemings  not  to  choose  a 
master  possessed  of  such  power  as  might  enable  him 
to  form  schemes  dangerous  to  their  liberties,  together 
with  their  dread  of  falling  under  the  odious  and  oppres- 
sive government  of  Louis,  were  obstacles  in  the  way  of 
executing  this  plan  which  it  was  vain  to  think  of  sur- 
mounting. By  the  latter,  the  accomplishment  of  which 
might  have  been  attained  with  ease,  Mary  having  dis- 
covered some  inclination  to  a  match  with  the  count  of 
Angouleme,7  Louis  would  have  prevented  the  dominions 
of  the  house  of  Burgundy  from  being  conveyed  to  a 
rival  power,  and  in  return  for  such  a  splendid  establish- 
ment for  the  count  of  Angouleme  he  must  have  obtaioed, 

7  M&n.  de  Coniines,  torn.  i.  p.  358. 


SECTION  ii.]  STATE    OP    EUROPE.  lUl 

or  would  have  extorted  from  him,  concessions  highly 
beneficial  to  the  crown  of  France.  But  Louis  had  been 
accustomed  so  long  to  the  intricacies  of  a  crooked  and 
insidious  policy  that  he  could  not  be  satisfied  with  what 
was  obvious  and  simple,  and  was  so  fond  of  artifice  and 
refinement  that  he  came  to  consider  these  rather  as  an 
ultimate  object  than  merely  as  the  means  of  conducting 
affairs.  From  this  principle,  no  less  than  from  his  un- 
willingness to  aggrandize  any  of  his  own  subjects,  or 
from  his  desire  of  oppressing  the  house  of  Burgundy, 
which  he  hated,  he  neglected  the  course  which  a  prince 
less  able  and  artful  would  have  taken,  and  followed  one 
more  suited  to  his  own  genius. 

He  proposed  to  render  himself,  by  force  of  arms, 
master  of  those  provinces  which  Mary  held  of  the 
crown  of  France,  and  even  to  push  his  conquests  into 
her  other  territories  while  he  amused  her  with  insist- 
ing continually  on  the  impracticable  match  with  the 
dauphin.  In  prosecuting  this  plan  he  displayed  won- 
derful talents  and  industry,  and  exhibited  such  scenes 
of  treachery,  falsehood,  and  cruelty  as  are  amazing  even 
in  the  history  of  Louis  XI.  Immediately  upon  the 
death  of  Charles  he  put  his  troops  in  motion  and 
advanced  towards  the  Netherlands.  He  corrupted  the 
leading  men  in  the .  provinces  of  Burgundy  and  Artois, 
and  seduced  them  to  desert  their  sovereign.  He  got 
admission  into  some  of  the  frontier  towns  by  bribing 
the  governors ;  the  gates  of  others  were  opened  to  him 
in  consequence  of  his  intrigues  with  the  inhabitants. 
He  negotiated  with  Mary;  and,  in  order  to  render  her 
odious  to  her  subjects,  he  betrayed  to  them  her  most 
important  secrets.  He  carried  on  a  private  correspond- 
ence with  the  two  ministers  whom  she  chiefly  trusted, 
and  then  communicated  the  letters  which  he  had  re- 
ceived from  them  to  the  states  of  Flanders,  who,  enraged 
at  their  perfidy,  brought  them  immediately  to  trial,  tor- 


1 02  A   VIEW   Or    THE  [SECTION  n. 

tured  them  with  extreme  cruelty,  and,  unmoved  by  the 
tears  and  entreaties  of  their  sovereign,  who  knew  and 
approved  of  all  that  the  ministers  had  done,  they  be- 
headed them  in  her  presence.8 

While  Louis,  by  his  conduct,  unworthy  of  a  great 
monarch,  was  securing  the  possession  of  Burgundy, 
Artois,  and  the  towns  on  the  Somme,  the  states  of 
Flanders  carried  on  a  negotiation  with  the  emperor 
Frederic  III.,  and  concluded  a  treaty  of  marriage 
between  their  sovereign  and  his  son  Maximilian,  arch- 
duke of  Austria.  The  illustrious  birth  of  that  prince, 
as  well  as  the  high  dignity  of  which  he  had  the  pros- 
pect, rendered  the  alliance  honourable  for  Mary,  while, 
from  the  distance  of  his  hereditary  territories  and  the 
scantiness  of  his  revenues,  his  power  was  so  inconsi- 
derable as  did  not  excite  the  jealousy  or  fear  of  the 
Flemings.  [1477.] 

Thus  Louis,  by  the  caprice  of  his  temper  and  the 
excess  of  his  refinements,  put  the  house  of  Austria  in 
possession  of  this  noble  inheritance.  By  this  acquisi- 
tion the  foundation  of  the  future  grandeur  of  Charles 
Y.  was  laid,  and  he  became  master  of  those  territories 
which  enabled  him  to  carry  on  his  most  formidable 
and  decisive  operations  against  France.  Thus,  too,  the 
same  monarch  who  first  united  the  interior  force  of 
France,  and  established  it  on  such  a  footing  as  to  render 
it  formidable  to  the  rest  of  Europe,  contributed,  far 
contrary  to  his  intention,  to  raise  up  a  rival  power, 
which  during  two  centuries  has  thwarted  the  measures, 
opposed  the  arms,  and  checked  the  progress  of  his 
successors. 

The  next  event  of  consequence  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury was  the  expedition  of  Charles  YIII.  into  Italy. 
This  occasioned  revolutions  no  less  memorable ;  pro- 
duced alterations,  both  in  the  military  and  political 

8  Mdm.  de  Comines,  liv.  v.  chap.  15,  p.  309,  etc. 


SECTION  ii.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  103 

system,  which  were  more  immediately  perceived ; 
roused  the  states  of  Europe  to  bolder  efforts,  and 
blended  their  affairs  and  interests  more  closely  toge- 
ther. The  inild  administration  of  Charles,  a  weak  but 
generous  prince,  seems  to  have  revived  the  spirit  and 
genius  of  the  French  nation,  which  the  rigid  despotism 
of  Louis  XI.,  his  father,  had  depressed  and  almost 
extinguished.  The  ardour  for  military  service,  natural 
to  the  French  nobility,  returned,  and  their  young 
monarch  was  impatient  to  distinguish  his  reign  by 
some  splendid  enterprise.  While  he  was  uncertain 
towards  what  quarter  he  should  turn  his  arms,  the 
solicitations  and  intrigues  of  an  Italian  politician,  no  less 
infamous  on  account  of  his  crimes  than  eminent  for 
his  abilities,  determined  his  choice.  Ludovico  Sforza, 
having  formed  the  design  of  deposing  his  nephew,  the 
duke  of  Milan,  and  of  placing  himself  on  the  ducal 
throne,  was  so  much  afraid  of  a  combination  of  the 
Italian  powers  to  oppose  this  measure  and  to  support 
the  injured  prince,  with  whom  most  of  them  were  con- 
nected by  blood  or  alliance,  that  he  saw  the  necessity 
of  securing  the  aid  of  some  able  protector.  The  king 
of  France  was  the  person  to  whom  he  applied ;  and, 
without  disclosing  his  own  intentions,  he  laboured  to 
prevail  with  him  to  march  into  Italy  at  the  head  of  a 
powerful  army,  in  order  to  seize  the  crown  of  Naples, 
to  which  Charles  had  pretensions  as  heir  of  the  house 
of  Anjou.  The  right  to  that  kingdom,  claimed  by  the 
Angevin  family,  had  been  conveyed  to  Louis  XI.  by 
Charles  of  Anjou,  count  of  Maine  and  Provence.  But 
that  sagacious  monarch,  though  he  took  immediate  pos- 
session of  those  territories  of  which  Charles  was  really 
master,  totally  disregarded  his  ideal  title  to  a  kingdom 
over  which  another  prince  reigned  in  tranquillity,  and 
uniformly  declined  involving  himself  in  the  labyrinth 
of  Italian  politics.  His  son,  more  adventurous,  or  more 


104  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  n. 

inconsiderate,  embarked  eagerly  in  this  enterprise,  and, 
contemning  all  the  remonstrances  of  his  most  experienced 
counsellors,  prepared  to  carry  it  on  with  the  utmost 
vigour.  [1494.] 

The  power  which  Charles  possessed  was  so  great  that 
he  reckoned  himself  equal  to  this  arduous  undertaking. 
His  father  had  transmitted  to  him  such  an  ample  pre- 
rogative as  gave  him  the  entire  command  of  his  king- 
dom. He  himself  had  added  considerably  to  the  extent 
of  his  dominions  by  his  prudent  marriage  with  the 
heiress  of  Bretagne,  which  rendered  him  master  of  that 
province,  the  last  of  the  great  fiefs  that  remained  to  be 
annexed  to  the  crown.  He  soon  assembled  forces  which 
he  thought  sufficient ;  and  so  impatient  was  he  to  enter 
on  his  career  as  a  conqueror  that,  sacrificing  what  was 
real  for  what  was  chimerical,  he  restored  Eoussillon  to 
Ferdinand  and  gave  up  part  of  his  father's  acquisitions 
in  Artois  to  Maximilian,  with  a  view  of  inducing  these 
princes  not  to  molest  France  while  he  was  carrying  on 
his  operations  in  Italy. 

But  so  different  were  the  efforts  of  the  states  of 
Europe  in  the  fifteenth  century  from  those  which  we 
shall  behold  in  the  course  of  this  history,  that  the 
army  with  which  Charles  undertook  this  great  enter- 
prise did  not  exceed  twenty  thousand  men.  The  train 
of  artillery,  however,  the  ammunition,  and  warlike 
stores  of  every  kind  provided  for  its  use,  were  so  con- 
siderable as  to  bear  some  resemblance  to  the  immense 
apparatus  of  modern  war.9 

When  the  French  entered  Italy,  they  met  with 
nothing  able  to  resist  them.  The  Italian  powers,  having 
remained  during  a  long  period  undisturbed  by  the  in- 
vasion of  any  foreign  enemy,  had  formed  a  system  with 
respect  to  their  affairs,  both  in  peace  and  war,  peculiar 
to  themselves.  In  order  to  adjust  the  interests  and 

9  Mezeray,  Hist.,  torn.  ii.  p.  777. 


SECTION  IL]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  105 

balance  the  power  of  the  different  states  into  which 
Italy  was  divided,  they  were  engaged  in  perpetual  and 
endless  negotiations  with  each  other,  which  they  con- 
ducted with  all  the  subtlety  of  a  refining  and  deceitful 
policy.  Their  contests  in  the  field,  when  they  had 
recourse  to  arms,  were  decided  in  mock  battles,  by 
innocent  and  bloodless  victories.  Upon  the  first  appear- 
ance of  the  danger  which  now  impended  they  had 
recourse  to  the  arts  which  they  had  studied,  and  em- 
ployed their  utmost  skill  in  intrigue  in  order  to  avert  it 
But,  this  proving  ineffectual,  their  bands  of  effeminate 
mercenaries,  the  only  military  force  that  remained  in 
the  country,  being  fit  only  for  the  parade  of  service, 
were  terrified  at  the  aspect  of  real  war  and  shrunk 
at  its  approach.  The  impetuosity  of  the  French  valour 
appeared  to  them  irresistible.  Florence,  Pisa,  and  Eome 
opened  their  gates  as  the  French  army  advanced.  The 
prospect  of  this  dreadful  invasion  struck  one  king  of 
Naples  with  ?>uch  panic  terror  that  he  died  (if  we  may 
believe  historians)  of  the  fright.  Another  abdicated  his 
throne  from  the  same  pusillanimous  spirit.  A  third  fled 
out  of  his  dominions  as  soon  as  the  enemy  appeared 
on  the  Neapolitan  frontiers.  Charles,  after  marching 
thither  from  the  bottom  of  the  Alps  with  as  much  rapidity 
and  almost  as  little  opposition  as  if  he  had  been  on  a 
progress  through  his  own  dominions,  took  quiet  posses- 
sion of  the  throne  of  Naples,  and  intimidated  or  gave 
law  to  every  power  in  Italy. 

Such  was  the  conclusion  of  an  expedition  that  must 
be  considered  as  the  first  great  exertion  of  those  new 
powers  which  the  princes  of  Europe  had  acquired  and 
now  began  to  exercise.  Its  effects  were  no  less  con- 
siderable than  its  success  had  been  astonishing.  The 
Italians,  unable  to  resist  the  impression  of  the  enemy 
who  broke  in  upon  them,  permitted  him  to  hold  on  his 
course  undisturbed.  They  quickly  perceived  I  hat  no 


106  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  11 

single  power  which  they  could  rouse  to  action   *vas  an 
equal  match  for  a  monarch  who  ruled  over  such  exten- 
sive territories  and  was  at  the  head  of  such  a  martial 
people,  but  that  a  confederacy  might  accomplish  what 
the  separate  members  of  it  durst  not  attempt.     To  this 
expedient,  the  only  one  that  remained  to  deliver  or  to 
preserve  them  from  the  yoke,  they  had  recourse.     While 
Charles   inconsiderately  wasted  his  time  at  Naples  in 
festivals  and  triumphs  on  account  of  his  past  successes, 
or  was  fondly  dreaming  of  future  conquests  in  the  East, 
to  the  empire  of  which  he  now  aspired,  they  formed 
against  him  a  powerful  combination  of  almost  all  the 
Italian  states,  supported  by  the  emperor   Maximilian, 
and  Ferdinand,  King  of  Aragon.     The  union  of  so  man}' 
powers,  who    suspended   or  forgot  all  their  particulai 
animosities  that  they  might  act  in  concert  against  an 
enemy  who  had  become  formidable  to  them  all,  awakened 
Charles  from  his  thoughtless  security.     He  saw  now  no 
prospect  of  safety  but  in  returning  to  France.  An  army  of 
thirty  thousand  men,  assembled  by  the  allies,  was  ready 
to  obstruct  his  march ;  and  though  the  French,  with  a 
daring   courage   which   more   than    countervailed  their 
inferiority  in  number,  broke  through  that  great  body 
and  gained  a   victory  which  opened  to  their  monarch 
a  safe  passage  into  his  own  territories,  he  was  stripped 
of  all  his  conquests  in  Italy  in  as  short  a  time  as  it  had 
taken  to  acquire  them ;  and  the  political  system  in  that 
country   resumed  the   same   appearance   as  before   his 
invasion. 

The  sudden  and  decisive  effect  of  this  confederacy 
seems  to  have  instructed  the  princes  and  statesmen  of 
Italy  as  much  as  the  irruption  of  the  French  had  dis- 
concerted and  alarmed  them.  They  had  extended,  on 
this  occasion,  to  the  affairs  of  Europe,  the  maxims  of 
that  political  science  which  had  hitherto  been  applied 
only  to  regulate  the  operations  of  the  petty  states  in 


SECTION  ii.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  107 

their  own  country.  They  had  discovered  the  method 
of  preventing  any  monarch  from  rising  to  such  a  degree 
of  power  as  was  inconsistent  with  the  general  liberty, 
and  had  manifested  the  importance  of  attending  to  that 
great  secret  in  modern  policy,  the  preservation  of  a 
proper  distribution  of  power  among  all  the  members 
of  the  system  into  which  the  states  of  Europe  are 
formed.  During  all  the  wars  of  which  Italy  from  that 
time  was  the  theatre,  and  amidst  the  hostile  operations 
which  the  imprudence  of  Louis  XII.  and  the  ambition 
of  Ferdinand  of  Aragon  carried  on  in  that  country, 
with  little  interruption,  from  the  close  of  the  fifteenth 
century  to  that  period  at  which  the  subsequent  history 
commences,  the  maintaining  a  proper  balance  of  power 
between  the  contending  parties  became  the  great  object 
of  attention  to  the  statesmen  of  Italy.  Nor  was  the 
idea  confined  to  them.  Self-preservation  taught  other 
powers  to  adopt  it.  It  grew  to  be  fashionable  and  uni- 
versal. From  this  era  we  can  trace  the  progress  of  that 
intercourse  between  nations  which  has  linked  the 
powers  of  Europe  so  closely  together,  and  can  discern 
the  operations  of  that  provident  policy  which  during 
peace  guards  against  remote  and  contingent  dangers, 
and  in  war  has  prevented  rapid  and  destructive  con- 
quests. 

This  was  not  the  only  effect  of  the  operations  which 
the  great  powers  of  Europe  carried  on  in  Italy.  They 
contributed  to  render  general  such  a  change  as  the 
French  had  begun  to  make  in  the  state  of  their  troops, 
and  obliged  all  the  princes  who  appeared  on  this  new 
theatre  of  action  to  put  the  military  force  of  their 
kingdoms  on  an  establishment  similar  to  that  of  France. 
When  the  seat  of  war  came  to  be  remote  from  the 
countries  which  maintained  the  contest,  the  service 
of  the  feudal  vassals  ceased  to  be  of  any  use,  and  the 
necessity  of  employing  soldiers  regularly  trained  to 


108  A   VIEW   OF    THE  [SECTION  n. 

arms  and  kept  in  constant  pay  came  at  once  to  be 
evident.  When  Charles  VIII.  marched  into  Italy,  his 
cavalry  was  entirely  composed  of  those  companies  of 
gendarmes  embodied  by  Charles  VII.  and  continued  by 
Louis  XI. ;  his  infantry  consisted  partly  of  Swiss,  hired 
of  the  Cantons,  and  partly  of  Gascons,  armed  and  dis- 
ciplined after  the  Swiss  model.  To  these  Louis  XII. 
added  a  body  of  Germans,  well  known  in  the  wars  of 
Italy  by  the  name  of  the  black  bands.  But  neither  of 
these  monarchs  made  any  account  of  the  feudal  militia, 
or  ever  had  recourse  to  that  military  force  which  they 
might  have  commanded  in  virtue  of  the  ancient  institu- 
tions in  their  kingdom.  Maximilian  and  Ferdinand, 
as  soon  as  they  began  to  act  in  Italy,  employed  similar 
instruments,  and  trusted  the  execution  of  their  plans 
entirely  to  mercenary  troops. 

This  innovation  in  the  military  system  was  quickly 
followed  by  another,  which  the  custom  of  employing 
Swiss  in  the  Italian  wars  was  the  occasion  of  intro- 
ducing. The  arms  and  discipline  of  the  Swiss  were 
different  from  those  of  other  European  nations.  During 
their  long  and  violent  struggles  in  defence  of  their 
liberties  against  the  house  of  Austria,  whose  armies, 
like  those  of  other  considerable  princes,  consisted 
chiefly  of  heavy-armed  cavalry,  the  Swiss  found  that 
their  poverty,  and  the  small  number  of  gentlemen 
residing  in  their  country,  at  that  time  barren  and  ill 
cultivated,  put  it  out  of  their  power  to  bring  into  the 
field  any  body  of  horse  capable  of  facing  the  enemy. 
Necessity  compelled  them  to  place  all  their  confidence 
in  infantry ;  and,  in  order  to  render  it  capable  of  with- 
standing the  shock  of  cavalry,  they  gave  the  soldiers 
breastplates  and  helmets  as  defensive  armour,  together 
with  long  spears,  halberds,  and  heavy  swords  as  weapons 
of  defence.  They  formed  them  into  large  battalions, 
ranged  in  deep  and  close  array,  so  that  they  could 


SECTION  n.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  100 

present  on  every  side  a  formidable  front  to  the  enemy.10 
The  men-at-arms  could  make  no  impression  on  the 
solid  strength  of  such  a  body.  It  repulsed  the  Aus- 
trians  in  all  their  attempts  to  conquer  Switzerland.  It 
broke  the  Burgundian  gendarmerie,  which  was  scarcely 
inferior  to  that  of  France,  either  in  number  or  reputa- 
tion ;  and  when  first  called  to  act  in  Italy,  it  bore  down, 
by  its  irresistible  force,  every  enemy  that  attempted  to 
oppose  it.  These  repeated  proofs  of  the  decisive  effect 
of  infantry,  exhibited  on  such  conspicuous  occasions, 
restored  that  service  to  reputation,  and  gradually  re- 
established the  opinion,  which  had  been  long  exploded, 
of  its  superior  importance  in  the  operations  of  war.  But, 
the  glory  which  the  Swiss  had  acquired  having  inspired 
them  with  such  high  ideas  of  their  own  prowess  and 
consequence  as  frequently  rendered  them  mutinous 
and  insolent,  the  princes  who  employed  them  became 
weary  of  depending  on  the  caprice  of  foreign  mer- 
cenaries, and  began  to  turn  their  attention  towards  the 
improvement  of  their  national  infantry. 

The  German  powers,  having  the  command  of  men 
whom  nature  has  endowed  with  that  steady  courage  and 
persevering  strength  which  form  them  to  be  soldiers, 
soon  modelled  their  troops  in  such  a  manner  that  they 
vied  with  the  Swiss  both  in  discipline  and  valour. 

The  French  monarchs,  though  more  slowly  and  with 
greater  difficulty,  accustomed  the  impetuous  spirit  of 
their  people  to  subordination  and  discipline,  and  were 
at  such  pains  to  render  their  national  infantry  respect- 
able that  as  early  as  the  reign  of  Louis  XII.  several 
gentlemen  of  high  rank  had  so  far  abandoned  their 
ancient  ideas  as  to  condescend  to  enter  into  that 
service.11 

The    Spaniards,  whose  situation   made  it  difficult  to 

lu  Machiavel's  Art  of  War,  b.  ii.  "   Brant6me,   torn.    x.    p.    18. — 

chap.  ii.  p.  451.  M&n.  de  Fleuranges,  p.  143. 


110  A    VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  n. 

employ  any  other  than  their  national  troops  in  the 
southern  parts  of  Italy,  which  was  the  chief  scene  of 
their  operations  in  that  country,  not  only  adopted  the 
Swiss  discipline,  but  improved  upon  it,  by  mingling  a 
proper  number  of  soldiers,  armed  with  heavy  muskets, 
in  their  battalions,  and  thus  formed  that  famous  body 
of  infantry  which  during  a  century  and  a  half  was  the 
admiration  and  terror  of  all  Europe.  The  Italian  states 
gradually  diminished  the  number  of  their  cavalry  and, 
in  imitation  of  their  more  powerful  neighbours,  brought 
the  strength  of  their  armies  to  consist  in  foot-soldiers. 
From  this  period  the  nations  of  Europe  have  carried  on 
war  with  forces  more  adapted  to  every  species  of  service, 
more  capable  of  acting  in  every  country,  and  better 
fitted  both  for  making  conquests  and  for  preserving 
them. 

As  their  efforts  in  Italy  led  the  people  of  Europe  to 
these  improvements  in  the  art  of  war,  they  gave  them 
likewise  the  first  idea  of  the  expense  with  which  it  is 
accompanied  when  extensive  or  of  long  continuance, 
and  accustomed  every  nation  to  the  burden  of  such 
impositions  as  are  necessary  for  supporting  it.  While 
the  feudal  policy  subsisted  in  full  vigour,  while  armies 
were  composed  of  military  vassals  called  forth  to  attack 
some  neighbouring  power  and  to  perform  in  a  short 
campaign  the  services  which  they  owed  to  their  sove- 
reign, the  expense  of  war  was  extremely  moderate.  A 
small  subsidy  enabled  a  prince  to  begin  and  to  finish 
his  greatest  military  operations.  But  when  Italy 
became  the  theatre  on  which  the  powers  of  Europe 
contended  for  superiority,  the  preparations  requisite  for 
such  a  distant  expedition,  the  pay  of  armies  kept  con- 
stantly on  foot,  their  subsistence  in  a  foreign  country, 
the  sieges  to  be  undertaken,  and  the  towns  to  be  de- 
fended, swelled  the  charges  of  war  immensely,  and,  by 
creating  demands  unknown  in  less  active  times,  mul- 


SECTION  ii.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  HI 

tiplied  taxes  in  every  kingdom.  The  progress  of  ambi- 
tion, however,  was  so  rapid,  and  princes  extended  their 
operations  so  fast,  that  it  was  impossible  at  first  to 
establish  funds  proportional  to  the  increase  of  expense 
which  these  occasioned.  When  Charles  YIII.  invaded 
Naples,  the  sums  requisite  for  carrying  on  that  enterprise 
so  far  exceeded  those  which  France  had  been  accustomed 
to  contribute  for  the  support  of  government  that  before 
he  reached  the  frontiers  of  Italy  his  treasury  was  ex- 
hausted, and  the  domestic  resources  of  which  his  exten- 
sive prerogative  gave  him  the  command  were  at  an  end. 
As  he  durst  not  venture  to  lay  any  imposition  on  his 
people,  oppressed  already  with  the  weight  of  unusual 
burdens,  the  only  expedient  that  remained  was  to  borrow 
of  the  Genoese  as  much  money  as  might  enable  him  to 
continue  his  march.  But  he  could  not  obtain  a  sufficient 
sum  without  consenting  to  pay  annually  the  exorbitant 
interest  of  forty-two  livres  for  every  hundred  that  he 
received.12  We  may  observe  the  same  disproportion 
between  the  efforts  and  revenues  of  other  princes,  his 
contemporaries.  From  this  period  taxes  went  on  in- 
creasing ;  and  during  the  reign  of  Charles  Y.  such  sums 
were  levied  in  every  state  as  would  have  appeared  enor- 
mous at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  gradually 
prepared  the  way  for  the  still  more  exorbitant  exactions 
of  modern  times. 

The  last  transaction,  previous  to  the  reign  of  Charles 
Y.,  that  merits  attention  on  account  of  its  influence  upon 
the  state  of  Europe,  is  the  league  of  Cambray.  To 
humble  the  republic  of  Yenice  and  to  divide  its  terri- 
tories was  the  object  of  all  the  powers  who  united  in 
this  confederacy.  The  civil  constitution  of  Yenice, 
established  on  a  firm  basis,  had  suffered  no  considerable 
alteration  for  several  centuries  ;  during  which  the  senate 
conducted  its  affairs  by  maxims  of  policy  no  less  prudent 

12  M&noires  de  Comines,  lib.  vii.  c.  5,  p.  440. 


112  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  n. 

than  vigorous,  and  adhered  to  these  with  a  uniform, 
consistent  spirit  which  gave  that  commonwealth  great 
advantage  over  other  states,  whose  views  and  measures 
changed  as  often  as  the  form  of  their  government,  or  the 
persons  who  administered  it.  By  these  unintermitted 
exertions  of  wisdom  and  valour  the  Venetians  enlarged 
the  dominions  of  their  commonwealth  until  it  became 
the  most  considerable  power  in  Italy;  while  their 
extensive  commerce,  the  useful  and  curious  manufac- 
tures which  they  carried  on,  together  with  the  large 
share  which  they  had  acquired  of  the  lucrative  commerce 
with  the  East,  rendered  Yenice  the  most  opulent  state  in 
Europe. 

The  power  of  the  Venetians  was  the  object  of  terror 
to  their  Italian  neighbours.  Their  wealth  was  viewed 
with  envy  by  the  greatest  monarchs,  who  could  not  vie 
with  many  of  their  private  citizens  in  the  magnificence 
of  their  buildings,  in  the  richness  of  their  dress  and 
furniture,  or  in  splendour  and  elegance  of  living.1' 
Julius  II.,  whose  ambition  was  superior,  and  his  abili- 
ties equal,  to  those  of  any  pontiff  who  ever  sat  on  the 
papal  throne,  conceived  the  idea  of  this  league  against 
the  Venetians,  and  endeavoured,  by  applying  to  those 
passions  which  I  have  mentioned,  to  persuade  other 
princes  to  join  it.  By  working  upon  the  fears  of  the 
Italian  powers,  and  upon  the  avarice  of  several  monarchs 
beyond  the  Alps,  he  induced  them,  in  concurrence  with 
other  causes,  which  it  is  not  my  province  to  explain, 
to  form  one  of  the  most  powerful  confederacies  that 
Europe  had  ever  beheld,  against  those  haughty  repub- 
licans. 

The  emperor,  the  king  of  France,  the  king  of  Aragon, 
and  the  pope,  were  principals  in  the  league  of  Cambray, 
to  which  almost  all  the  princes  of  Italy  acceded,  the 
least  considerable  of  them  hoping  for  some  share  in  the 

13  Heliani  Oratio,  apud  Goldastum,  in  Polit,  Imperial.,  p.  980. 


SECTION  H.]  STATE    OF   EUROPE.  113 

spoils  of  a  state  which  they  deemed  to  be  now  devoted 
to  destruction.  The  Venetians  might  have  diverted  this 
storm,  or  have  broken  its  force ;  but,  with  a  presump- 
tuous rashness  to  which  there  is  nothing  similar  in  the 
course  of  their  history,  they  waited  its  approach.  The 
impetuous  valour  of  the  French  rendered  ineffectual  all 
their  precautions  for  the  safety  of  the  republic  ;  and  the 
fatal  battle  of  Ghiarraddada  entirely  ruined  the  army  on 
which  they  relied  for  defence.  Julius  seized  all  the 
towns  which  they  held  in  the  ecclesiastical  territories. 
Ferdinand  re-annexed  the  towns  of  which  they  had  got 
possession  on  the  coast  of  Calabria  to  his  Neapolitan 
dominions.  Maximilian,  at  the  head  of  a  powerful 
army,  advanced  towards  Venice  on  the  one  side.  The 
French  pushed  their  conquests  on  the  other.  The 
Venetians,  surrounded  by  so  many  enemies,  and  left 
without  one  ally,  sunk  from  the  height  of  presumption 
to  the  depths  of  despair,  abandoned  all  their  territories 
on  the  continent,  and  shut  themselves  up  in  their  capital, 
as  their  last  refuge  and  the  only  place  which  they  hoped 
to  preserve. 

This  rapid  success,  however,  proved  fatal  to  the  con- 
federacy. The  members  of  it,  whose  union  continued 
while  they  were  engaged  in  seizing  their  prey,  began  to 
feel  their  ancient  jealousies  and  animosities  revive  as 
soon  as  they  had  a  prospect  of  dividing  it.  When  the 
Venetians  observed  these  symptoms  of  distrust  and 
alienation,  a  ray  of  hope  broke  in  upon  them :  the  spirit 
natural  to  their  counsels  returned ;  they  resumed  such 
wisdom  and  firmness  as  made  some  atonement  for  their 
former  imprudence  and  dejection  ;  they  recovered  part 
of  the  territory  which  they  had  lost ;  they  appeased  the 
pope  and  Ferdinand  by  well-timed  concessions  in  their 
favour ;  and  at  length  dissolved  the  confederacy  which 
had  brought  their  commonwealth  to  the  brink  of  ruin. 

Julius,  elated  with  beholding  the  effects  of  a  league 

VOU  I.  I 


114  A   Y1EW   OP  -THE  [SECTION  n. 

which  he  himself  had  planned,  and  imagining  that 
nothing  was  too  arduous  for  him  to  undertake,  conceived 
the  idea  of  expelling  every  foreign  power  out  of  Italy, 
and  bent  all  the  force  of  his  mind  towards  executing  a 
scheme  so  well  suited  to  his  enterprising  genius.  He 
directed  his  first  attack  against  the  French,  who,  on 
many  accounts,  were  more  odious  to  the  Italians  than 
any  of  the  foreigners  who  had  acquired  dominion  in 
their  country.  By  his  activity  and  address,  he  pre- 
vailed on  most  of  the  powers  who  had  joined  in  the 
league  of  Cambray  to  turn  their  arms  against  the  king 
of  France,  their  former  ally,  and  engaged  Henry  VIII., 
who  had  lately  ascended  the  throne  of  England,  to 
favour  their  operations  by  invading  France.  Louis  XII. 
resisted  all  the  efforts  of  this  formidable  and  unexpected 
confederacy  with  undaunted  fortitude.  Hostilities  were 

V 

carried  on,  during  several  campaigns,  in  Italy,  on  the 
frontiers  of  Spain,  and  in  Picardy,  with  alternate  suc- 
cess. Exhausted,  at  length,  by  the  variety  as  well  as 
extent  of  his  operations,  unable  to  withstand  a  con- 
federacy which  brought  against  him  superior  force,  con- 
ducted with  wisdom  and  acting  with  perseverance,  Louis 
found  it  necessary  to  conclude  separate  treaties  of  peace 
with  his  enemies ;  and  the  war  terminated  with  the  loss 
of  everything  which  the  French  had  acquired  in  Italy 
except  the  castle  of  Milan  and  a  few  inconsiderable 
towns  in  that  duchy. 

The  various  negotiations  carried  on  during  this  busy 
period,  and  the  different  combinations  formed  among 
powers  hitherto  little  connected  with  each  other,  greatly 
increased  that  intercourse  among  the  nations  of  Europe 
which  I  have  mentioned  as  one  effect  of  the  events  in 
the  fifteenth  century ;  while  the  greatness  of  the  objects 
at  which  different  nations  aimed,  the  distant  expeditions 
which  they  undertook,  as  well  as  the  length  and  obstinacy 
of  the  contest  in  which  they  engaged,  obliged  them  to 


ii.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  115 

exert  themselves  with  a  vigour  and  perseverance  un- 
known in  the  preceding  ages. 

Those  active  scenes  which  the  following  history  will 
exhibit,  as  well  as  the  variety  and  importance  of  those 
transactions  which  distinguish  the  period  to  which  it 
extends,  are  not  to  be  ascribed  solely  to  the  ambition,  to 
the  abilities,  or  to  the  rivalship  of  Charles  Y.  and  of 
Francis  I.  The  kingdoms  of  Europe  had  arrived  at 
such  a  degree  of  improvement  in  the  internal  adminis- 
tration of  government,  and  princes  had  acquired  such 
command  of  the  national  force  which  was  to  be  exerted 
in  foreign  wars,  that  they  were  in  a  condition  to  enlarge 
the  sphere  of  their  operations,  to  multiply  their  claims 
and  pretensions,  and  to  increase  the  vigour  of  their 
efforts.  Accordingly,  the  sixteenth  century  opened 
with  the  certain  prospect  of  its  abounding  in  great 
and  interesting  events. 


SECTION    III. 

« 

VIEW  OF  THE  POLITICAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  PRIN- 
CIPAL STATES  IN  EUEOPE  AT  THE  COMMENCEMENT 
OF  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Italy  at  the  Beginning  of  the  Sixteenth  Century. — The  Papal  Power. — 
Alexander  VI.  and  Julius  II. — Defects  in  Ecclesiastical  Govern- 
ments.— Venice :  its  Rise  and  Progress  ;  its  Naval  Power  and  its 
Commerce. — Florence. — Naples  and  Sicily. — Contest  for  its  Crown. 
— Duchy  of  Milan. — Ludovico  Sibrza. — Spain;  conquered  by  the 
Vandals  and  by  the  Moors  ;  gradually  reconquered  by  the  Christians. 
— Marriage  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. — The  Royal  Prerogative. — 
Constitution  of  Aragon  and  of  Castile. — Internal  Disorders. — "  The 
Holy  Brotherhood." — France  ;  its  Constitution  and  Government. — 
The  Power  of  its  Early  Kings. —  Government  becomes  purely 
Monarchical,  though  restrained  by  the  Nobles  and  the  Parliaments. — 
The  German  Empire. — Power  of  the  Nobles  and  of  the  Clergy. — 
Contests  between  the  Popes  and  the  Emperors. — Decline  of  Imperial 
Authority. — Total  Change  of  Government. — Maximilian. — The  real 
Power  and  Revenues  of  the  Emperors,  contrasted  with  their  Pre- 
tensions.—  Complication  of  Difficulties. —  Origin  of  the  Turkish 
Empire  ;  its  Character. — The  Janizaries. — Solyman. 

HAVING  thus  enumerated  the  principal  causes  and 
events  the  influence  of  which  was  felt  in  every  part  of 
Europe,  and  contributed  either  to  improve  internal  order 
and  police  in  its  various  states,  or  to  enlarge  the  sphere 
of  their  activity,  by  giving  them  more  entire  command 
of  the  force  with  which  foreign  operations  are  carried 
on,  nothing  farther  seems  requisite  for  preparing  my 
readers  to  enter,  with  full  information,  upon  perusing 
the  history  of  Charles  V.,  but  to  give  a  view  of  the 
political  constitution  and  form  of  civil  government  in 
each  of  the  nations  which  acted  any  considerable  part 
during  that  period.  For  as  the  institutions  and  events 
which  I  have  endeavoured  to  illustrate  formed  the  people 
of  Europe  to  resemble  each  other,  and  conducted  them 


SECTION  in.]  A  VIEW  OF   THE   STATE   OF  EUEOPE.  117 

from  barbarism  to  refinement  in  the  same  path  and  by 
nearly  equal  steps,  there  were  other  circumstances  which 
occasioned  a  difference  in  their  political  establishments, 
and  gave  rise  to  those  peculiar  modes  of  government 
which  have  produced  such  variety  in  the  character  and 
genius  of  nations. 

It  is  no  less  necessary  to  become  acquainted  with  the 
latter  than  to  have  contemplated  the  former.  Without 
a  distinct  knowledge  of  the  peculiar  form  and  genius  of 
civil  government  in  each  state,  a  great  part  of  its  trans- 
actions must  appear  altogether  mysterious  and  inexpli- 
cable. The  historians  of  particular  countries,  as  they 
seldom  extended  their  views  farther  than  to  the  amuse- 
ment or  instruction  of  their  fellow-citizens,  by  whom 
they  might  presume  that  all  their  domestic  customs 
and  institutions  were  perfectly  understood,  have  often 
neglected  to  descend  into  such  details  with  respect  to 
these  as  are  sufficient  to  convey  to  foreigners  full  light 
and  information  concerning  the  occurrences  which  they 
relate.  But  a  history  which  comprehends  the  transac- 
tions of  so  many  different  countries  would  be  extremely 
imperfect  without  a  previous  survey  of  the  constitution 
and  political  state  of  each.  It  is  from  his  knowledge  of 
these  that  the  reader  must  draw  those  principles  which 
will  enable  him  to  judge  with  discernment  and  to  decide 
with  certainty  concerning  the  conduct  of  nations. 

A  minute  detail,  however,  of  the  peculiar  forms  and 
regulations  in  every  country  would  lead  to  deductions 
of  immeasurable  length.  To  sketch  out  the  great  lines 
which  distinguish  and  characterise  each  government  is 
all  that  the  nature  of  my  present  work  will  admit  of, 
and  all  that  is  necessary  to  illustrate  the  events  which 
it  records. 

At  the  opening  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  political 
aspect  of  Italy  was  extremely  different  from  that  of 
any  other  part  of  E  irope.  Instead  of  those  extensive 


118  A    VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  in. 

monarchies  which  occupied  the  rest  of  the  continent, 
that  delightful  country  was  parcelled  out  among  many 
small  states,  each  of  which  possessed  sovereign  and 
independent  jurisdiction.  The  only  monarchy  in  Italy 
was  that  of  Naples.  The  dominion  of  the  popes  was  of 
a  peculiar  species,  to  which  there  is  nothing  similar  either 
in  ancient  or  modern  times.  In  Venice,  Florence,  and 
Genoa,  a  republican  form  of  government  was  established. 
Milan  was  subject  to  sovereigns,  who  had  assumed  no 
higher  title  than  that  of  dukes. 

The  pope  was  the  first  of  these  powers  in  dignity,  and 
not  the  least  considerable  by  the  extent  of  his  territories. 
In  the  primitive  church,  the  jurisdiction  of  bishops  was 
equal  and  co-ordinate.  They  derived,  perhaps,  some 
degree  of  consideration  from  the  dignity  of  the  see  in 
which  they  presided.  They  possessed,  however,  no  real 
authority  or  pre-eminence  but  what  they  acquired  by 
superior  abilities  or  superior  sanctity.  As  Borne  had  so 
long  been  the  seat  of  empire  and  the  capital  of  the 
world,  its  bishops  were  on  that  account  entitled  to 
respect ;  they  received  it ;  but  during  several  ages  they 
received,  and  even  claimed,  nothing  more.  From  these 
humble  beginnings  they  advanced  with  such  adven- 
turous and  well-directed  ambition  that  they  established 
a  spiritual  dominion  over  the  minds  and  sentiments  of 
men,  to  which  all  Europe  submitted  with  implicit 
obedience.  Their  claim  of  universal  jurisdiction,  as 
heads  of  the  Church,  and  their  pretensions  to  infalli- 
bility in  their  decisions,  as  successors  of  St.  Peter,  are 
as  chimerical  as  they  are  repugnant  to  the  genius  of  the 
Christian  religion.  But  on  these  foundations  the  super- 
stition and  credulity  of  mankind  enabled  them  to  erect 
an  amazing  superstructure.  In  all  ecclesiastical  con- 
troversies their  decisions  were  received  as  the  infallible 
oracles  of  truth.  Nor  was  the  plenitude  of  their  power 
confined  solely  to  what  was  spiritual :  they  dethroned 


SECTION  in.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  119 

monarchs,  disposed  of  'crowns,  absolved  subjects  from 
the  obedience  due  to  their  sovereigns,  and  laid  kingdoms 
under  interdicts.  There  was  not  a  state  in  Europe 
which  had  not  been  disquieted  by  their  ambition ;  there 
was  not  a  throne  which  they  had  not  shaken,  nor  a 
prince  who  did  not  tremble  at  their  power. 

Nothing  was  wanting  to  render  this  empire  absolute, 
and  to  establish  it  on  the  ruins  of  all  civil  authority, 
but  that  the  popes  should  have  possessed  such  a  degree 
of  temporal  power  as  was  sufficient  to  second  and  enforce 
their  spiritual  decrees.  Happily  for  mankind,  at  the 
time  when  their  spiritual  jurisdiction  was  most  extensive 
and  most  revered,  their  secular  dominion  was  extremely 
limited.  They  were  powerful  pontiffs,  formidable  at  a 
distance ;  but  they  were  petty  princes,  without  any  con- 
siderable domestic  force.  They  had  early  endeavoured, 
indeed,  to  acquire  territory  by  arts  similar  to  those 
which  they  had  employed  in  extending  their  spiritual 
jurisdiction.  Under  pretence  of  a  donation  from  Con- 
stuntine,  and  of  another  from  Charlemagne  or  his  father 
Pepin,  they  attempted  to  take  possession  of  some  towns 
adjacent  to  Rome.  But  these  donations  were  fictitious 
and  availed  them  little.  The  benefactions  for  which 
they  were  indebted  to  the  credulity  of  the  Norman 
adventurers  who  conquered  Naples,  and  to  the  super- 
stition of  the  Countess  Matilda,  were  real,  and  added 
ample  domains  to  the  holy  see. 

But  the  power  of  the  popes  did  not  increase  in  pro- 
portion to  the  extent  of  territory  which  they  had 
acquired.  In  the  dominions  annexed  to  the  holy  see, 
as  well  as  in  those  subject  to  other  princes  in  Italy,  the 
sovereign  of  a  state  was  far  from  having  the  command 
of  a  force  which  it  contained.  During  the  turbulence 
and  confusion  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  powerful  nobility 
or  leaders  of  popular  factions  in  Italy  had  seized  the 
government  of  different  towns  ;  and,  after  strengthening 


120  A   VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  in. 

their  fortifications  and  taking  a  body  of  mercenaries 
into  pay,  they  aspired  at  independence.  The  territory 
which  the  Church  had  gained  was  filled  with  petty  lords 
of  this  kind,  who  left  the  pope  hardly  the  shadow  of 
dominion. 

As  these  usurpations  almost  annihilated  the  papal 
power  in  the  greater  part  of  the  towns  subject  to  the 
Church,  the  Eoman  barons  frequently  disputed  the 
authority  of  the  popes,  even  in  Eome  itself.  In  the 
twelfth  century  an  opinion  began  to  be  propagated, 
"  That  as  the  function  of  ecclesiastics  was  purely 
spiritual,  they  ought  to  possess  no  property,  and  to 
claim  no  temporal  jurisdiction,  but,  according  to  the 
laudable  example  of  their  predecessors  in  the  primitive 
church,  should  subsist  wholly  upon  their  tithes,  or  upon 
the  voluntary  oblations  of  the  people."  x  This  doctrine 
being  addressed  to  men  who  had  beheld  the  scandalous 
manner  in  which  the  avarice  and  ambition  of  the  clergy 
had  prompted  them  to  contend  for  wealth  and  to  exer- 
cise power,  they  listened  to  it  with  fond  attention.  The 
Eoman  barons,  who  had  felt  most  sensibly  the  rigour  of 
ecclesiastical  oppression,  adopted  these  sentiments  with 
such  ardour  that  they  set  themselves  instantly  to  shake 
off  the  yoke.  They  endeavoured  to  restore  some  image 
of  their  ancient  liberty,  by  reviving  the  institution  of 
the  Eoman  senate,  in  which  they  vested  supreme  autho- 
rity ;  committing  the  executive  power  sometimes  to  one 
chief  senator,  sometimes  to  two,  and  sometimes  to  a 
magistrate  dignified  with  the  name  of  The  Patrician. 
The  popes  exerted  them  with  vigour,  in  order  to  check 
this  dangerous  encroachment  on  their  jurisdiction.  One 
of  them,  finding  all  his  endeavours  ineffectual,  was  so 
much  mortified  that  extreme  grief  cut  short  his  days. 
Another,  having  ventured  to  attack  the  senators  at  the 
head  of  some  armed  men,  was  mortally  wounded  in  the 

1  Otto  Frisingensis  de  Gestis  Frider.  Imp.,  lib.  ii.  cap.  10. 


SECTION  in.]  ^TATE    OF    EUROPE.  121 

fray.2  During  a  considerable  period,  the  power  of  the 
popes,  before  which  the  greatest  monarchs  in  Europe 
trembled,  was  circumscribed  within  such  narrow  limits 
in  their  own  capital,  that  they  durst  hardly  exert  any 
act  of  authority  without  the  permission  and  concurrence 
of  the  senate. 

Encroachments  were  made  upon  the  papal  sovereignty, 
not  only  by  the  usurpations  of  the  Eoman  nobility,  but 
by  the  mutinous  spirit  of  the  people.  During  seventy 
years  of  the  fourteenth  century  the  popes  fixed  their 
residence  in  Avignon.  The  inhabitants  of  Rome,  accus- 
tomed to  consider  themselves  as  the  descendants  of  the 
people  who  had  conquered  the  world  and  had  given  laws 
to  it,  were  too  high-spirited  to  submit  with  patience  to 
the  delegated  authority  of  those  persons  to  whom  the 
popes  committed  the  government  of  the  city.  On  many 
occasions  they  opposed  the  execution  of  the  papal  man- 
dates, and  on  the  slightest  appearance  of  innovation  or 
oppression  they  were  ready  to  take  arms  in  defence  of 
their  own  immunities.  Towards  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  being  instigated  by  Nicholas  Rienzo, 
a  man  of  low  birth  and  a  seditious  spirit,  but  of  popular 
eloquence  and  an  enterprising  ambition,  they  drove  all 
the  nobility  out  of  the  city,  established  a  democratical 
form  of  government,  elected  Rienzo  tribune  of  the 
people,  and  invested  him  with  extensive  authority.  But 
though  the  frantic  proceedings  of  the  tribune  soon  over- 
turned this  new  system,  though  the  government  of 
Rome  was  reinstated  in  its  ancient  form,  yet  every  fresh 
attack  contributed  to  weaken  the  papal  jurisdiction ;  and 
the  turbulence  of  the  people  concurred  with  the  spirit  of 
independence  among  the  nobility  in  circumscribing  it 
more  and  more.3  Gregory  YII.  and  other  domineering 

"  Otto  Frising.,  Chron.,  lib.  vii.      d'ltalia,  vol.  ix.  pp.  398-404. 
cap.   27,   31.  —Id.   de  Gest.   Frid.,  3  Histoire    Florentine    de    Giov. 

lib.    L    c.    27. —  Muratori,    Annali      Villani,  liv.    xii.    c.    89,    104,   ap 


1 22  A   VIEW    OP    THE  [SECTION  in. 

pontiffs  accomplished  those  great  things  which  rendered 
them  so  formidable  to  the  emperors  with  whom  they 
contended,  not  by  the  force  of  their  arms  or  by  the 
extent  of  their  power,  but  by  the  dread  of  their  spiritual 
censures  and  by  the  effect  of  their  intrigues,  which  ex- 
cited rivals  and  called  forth  enemies  against  every  prince 
whom  they  wished  to  depress  or  to  destroy. 

Many  attempts  were  made  by  the  popes,  not  only  to 
humble  those  usurpers  who  lorded  it  over  the  cities  in 
the  ecclesiastical  state,  but  to  break  the  turbulent  spirit 
of  the  Eoman  people.  These  were  long  unsuccessful. 
But  at  last  Alexander  VI.,  with  a  policy  no  less  artful 
than  flagitious,  subdued  or  extirpated  most  of  the  great 
Eoman  barons,  and  rendered  the  popes  masters  of  their 
own  dominions.  The  enterprising  ambition  of  Julius 
II.  added  conquests  of  no  inconsiderable  value  to  the 
patrimony  of  St.  Peter.  Thus  the  popes,  by  degrees, 
became  powerful  temporal  princes.  Their  territories, 
in  the  age  of  Charles  Y.,  were  of  greater  extent  than  at 
present;  their  country  seems  to  have  been  better  cul- 
tivated, as  well  as  more  populous  ;  and,  as  they  drew 
large  contributions  from  every  part  of  Europe,  their 
revenues  far  exceeded  those  of  the  neighbouring  powers, 
and  rendered  them  capable  of  more  sudden  and  vigorous 
efforts. 

The  genius  of  the  papal  government,  however,  was 
better  adapted  to  the  exercise  of  spiritual  dominion 
than  of  temporal  power.  With  respect  to  the  former, 
all  its  maxims  were  steady  and  invariable ;  every  new 
pontiff  adopted  the  plan  of  his  predecessor.  By  edu- 
cation and  habit,  ecclesiastics  were  so  formed  that  the 
character  of  the  individual  was  sunk  in  that  of  the 
profession,  and  the  passions  of  the  man  were  sacrificed 

Murat.,  Script.   Rerum    Ital.,   vol.      etc.  —  Hist,    de   Nic.    Eienzy,   par 
xiii. — Vita  di  Cola  di  Rienzo,  ap.      M.  de  Boispre'aux,  p.  91,  etc, 
-at,,  Antiq.  Ttal.,  vol.  iii.  p.  399, 


SECTION  in.]  STATE    OF    EUROPE.  123 

to  the  interest  and  honour  of  the  order.  The  hands 
which  held  the  reins  of  administration  might  change, 
but  the  spirit  which  conducted  them  was  always  the 
same.  While  the  measures  of  other  governments  fluc- 
tuated, and  the  objects  at  which  they  aimed  varied,  the 
Church  kept  one  end  in  view ;  and  to  this  unrelaxing 
constancy  of  pursuit  it  was  indebted  for  its  success  in 
the  boldest  attempts  ever  made  by  human  ambition. 

But  in  their  civil  administration  the  popes  followed 
no  such  uniform  or  consistent  plan.  There,  as  in  other 
governments,  the  character,  the  passions,  and  the  in- 
terest of  the  person  who  had  the  supreme  direction 
of  affairs  occasioned  a  variation  both  in  objects  and 
measures.  As  few  prelates  reached  the  summit  of 
ecclesiastical  dignity  until  they  were  far  advanced  in 
life,  a  change  of  masters  was  more  frequent  in  the  papal 
dominions  than  in  other  states,  and  the  political  system 
was,  of  course,  less  stable  and  permanent.  Every  pope 
was  eager  to  make  the  most  of  the  short  period  during 
which  he  had  the  prospect  of  enjoying  power,  in  order 
to  aggrandize  his  own  family  and  to  attain  his  private 
ends  ;  and  it  was  often  the  first  business  of  his  successor 
to  undo  all  that  he  had  done,  and  to  overturn  what  he 
had  established. 

As  ecclesiastics  were  trained  to  pacific  arts,  and  early 
initiated  in  the  mysteries  of  that  policy  by  which  the 
court  of  Eome  extended  or  supported  its  spiritual 
dominion,  the  popes,  in  the  conduct  of  their  temporal 
affairs,  were  apt  to  follow  the  same  maxims,  and  in  all 
their  measures  were  more  ready  to  employ  the  refine- 
ments of  intrigue  than  the  force  of  arms.  It  was  in 
the  papal  court  that  address  and  subtlety  in  negotiation 
became  a  science ;  and  during  the  sixteenth  century 
Eome  was  considered  as  the  school  in  which  it  might 
be  best  acquired. 

As  the  decorum  of  their  ecclesiastical  character  pre- 


]24  A    VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  in 

vented  the  popes  from  placing  themselves  at  the  head 
of  their  armies  or  from  taking  the  command  in  person  of 
the  military  force  in  their  dominions,  they  were  afraid 
to  arm  their  subjects ;  and  in  all  their  operations,  whether 
offensive  or  defensive,  they  trusted  entirely  to  mercenary 
troops. 

As  their  power  and  dominions  could  not  descend  to 
their  posterity,  the  popes  were  less  solicitous  than  other 
princes  to  form  or  to  encourage  schemes  of  piiblic 
utility  and  improvement.  Their  tenure  was  only  for  a 
short  life;  present  advantage  was  what  they  chiefly 
studied ;  to  squeeze  and  to  amass,  rather  than  to  ame- 
liorate, was  their  object.  They  erected,  perhaps,  some 
work  of  ostentation,  to  remain  as  a  monument  of  their 
pontificate ;  they  found  it  necessary,  at  some  times,  to 
establish  useful  institutions,  in  order  to  soothe  and 
silence  the  turbulent  populace  of  Kome;  but  plans  of 
general  benefit  of  their  subjects,  framed  with  a  view  to 
futurity,  were  rarely  objects  of  attention  in  the  papal 
policy.  The  patrimony  of  St.  Peter  was  worse  governed 
than  any  part  of  Europe  ;  and  though  a  generous 
pontiff  might  suspend  for  a  little,  or  counteract,  the 
effects  of  those  vices  which  are  peculiar  to  the  adminis- 
tration of  ecclesiastics,  the  disease  not  only  remained 
without  remedy,  but  has  gone  on  increasing  from  age 
to  age  ;  and  the  decline  of  the  state  has  kept  pace  with 
its  progress. 

One  circumstance  farther,  concerning  the  papal  go- 
vernment, is  so  singular  as  to  merit  attention.  As  the 
spiritual  supremacy  and  temporal  power  were  united  in 
one  person,  and  uniformly  aided  each  other  in  their 
operations,  they  became  so  blended  together  that  it 
was  difficult  to  separate  them,  even  in  imagination. 
The  potentates  who  found  it  necessary  to  oppose  the 
measures  which  the  popes  pursued  as  temporal  princes 
could  not  easily  divest  themselves  of  the  reverence 


8KUTION   III.] 


STATE    OF    EUROPE. 


125 


which  they  imagined  to  be  due  to  them  as  heads  of 
the  Church  and  vicars  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  was  with 
reluctance  that  they  could  be  brought  to  a  rupture 
with  the  head  of  the  Church ;  they  were  unwilling  to 
push  their  operations  against  him  to  extremity ;  they 
listened  eagerly  to  the  first  overtures  of  accommoda- 
tion, and  were  anxious  to  procure  it  almost  upon  any 
terms.  Their  consciousness  of  this  encouraged  the 
enterprising  pontiffs  who  filled  the  papal  throne  about 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  to  engage  in 
schemes  seemingly  the  most  extravagant.  They  trusted 
that,  if  their  temporal  power  was  not  sufficient  to  carry 
them  through  with  success, .  the  respect  paid  to  their 
spiritual  dignity  would  enable  them  to  extricate  them- 
selves with  facility  and  with  honour.4  But  when  popes 
came  to  take  part  more  frequently  in  the  contests  among 
princes,  and  to  engage  as  principals  or  auxiliaries  in 
every  war  kindled  in  Europe,  this  veneration  for  their 
sacred  character  began  to  abate ;  and  striking  instances 
will  occur  in  the  following  history  of  its  being  almost 
totally  extinct. 


4  The  manner  in  which  Louis  XII. 
of  France  undertook  and  carried  on 
war  against  Julius  II.  remarkably 
illustrates  this  observation.  Louis 
solemnly  consulted  the  clergy  of 
France  whether  it  was  lawful  to 
take  arms  against  a  pope  who  had 
wantonly  kindled  war  in  Europe, 
and  whom  neither  the  faith  of 
treaties,  nor  gratitude  for  favours 
received,  nor  the  decorum  of  his 
character,  could  restrain  from  the 
most  violent  actions  to  which  the 
lust  of  power  prompts  ambitious 
princes.  Though  his  clergy  autho- 
rised the  war,  yet  Anne  of  Bretagne, 
his  queen,  entertained  scruples  with 
regard  to  the  lawfulness  of  it.  The 
king  himself,  from  some  superstition, 
of  the  same  kind,  carried  it  on 


faintly,  and,  upon  every  fresh  ad- 
vantage, renewed  his  propositions  of 
peace.  (Me'ze'ray,  Hist,  de  France, 
fol.  edit.,  1685,  torn.  i.  p.  852.)  I 
shall  produce  another  proof  of  this 
reverence  for  the  papal  character, 
still  more  striking.  Guicciardini, 
the  most  sagacious,  perhaps,  of  all 
modern  historians,  and  the  boldest 
in  painting  the  vices  and  ambition 
of  the  popes,  represents  the  death 
of  Migliau,  a  Spanish  officer  who 
was  killed  during  the  siege  of 
Naples,  as  a  punishment  inflicted 
on  him  by  Heaven  on  account  of 
his  having  opposed  the  setting  of 
Clement  VII.  at  liberty.  Guicciar- 
dini, Istoria  d'ltalia,  Genev.,  1645, 
voL  ii.  lib.  18,  p.  467. 


126  A    VIEW    OF    THE  [SECTION  in. 

Of  all  the  Italian  powers,  the  republic  of  Venice, 
next  to  the  papal  see,  was  most  connected  with  the  rest 
of  Europe.  The  rise  of  that  commonwealth  during 
the  inroads  of  the  Huns  in  the  fifth  century,  the  sin- 
gular situation  of  its  capital  in  the  small  isles  of  the 
Adriatic  gulf,  and  the  more  singular  form  of  its  civil 
constitution,  are  generally  known.  If  we  view  the 
Venetian  government  as  calculated  for  the  order  of 
nobles  alone,  its  institutions  may  be  pronounced  excel- 
lent ;  the  deliberative,  legislative,  and  executive  powers 
are  so  admirably  distributed  and  adjusted  that  it  must 
be  regarded  as  a  perfect  model  of  political  wisdom.  But 
if  we  consider  it  as  formed  for  a  numerous  body  of 
people  subject  to  its  jurisdiction,  it  will  appear  a  rigid 
and  partial  aristocracy,  which  lodges  all  power  in  the 
hands  of  a  few  members  of  the  community,  while  it 
degrades  and  oppresses  the  rest. 

The  spirit  of  government  in  a  commonwealth  of  this 
species  was,  of  course,  timid  and  jealous.  The  Vene- 
tian nobles  distrusted  their  own  subjects,  and  were 
afraid  of  allowing  them  the  use  of  arms.  They  encou- 
raged among  them  arts  of  industry  and  commerce,  they 
employed  them  in  manufactures  and  in  navigation,  but 
never  admitted  them  into  the  troops  which  the  state 
kept  in  its  pay.  The  military  force  of  the  republic 
consisted  entirely  of  foreign  mercenaries.  The  com- 
mand of  these  was  never  trusted  to  noble  Venetians, 
lest  they  should  acquire  such  influence  over  the  army 
as  might  endanger  the  public  liberty,  or  become  accus- 
tomed to  the  exercise  of  such  power  as  would  make 
them  unwilling  to  return  to  the  condition  of  private 
citizens.  A  soldier  of  fortune  was  placed  at  the  head  of 
the  armies  of  the  commonweath ;  and  to  obtain  that 
honour  was  the  great  object  of  the  Italian  condot 'fieri,  or 
leaders  of  bands,  who  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth 
centuries  made  a  trade  of  war  and  raised  and  hired  out 


SECTION  in.]  STATE    OF    EUBOPE.  l*^ 

soldiers  to  different  states.  But  the  same  suspicious 
policy  which  induced  the  Venetians  to  employ  these 
adventurers  preventing  their  placing  entire  confidence 
in  them.  Two  noblemen,  appointed  by  the  senate, 
accompanied  their  army  when  it  took  the  field,  with  the 
appellation  of  proveditori,  and,  like  the  field  deputies 
of  the  Dutch  republic  in  latter  times,  observed  all  the 
motions  of  the  general  and  checked  and  controlled  him 
in  all  his  operations. 

A  commonwealth  with  such  civil  and  military  insti- 
tutions was  not  formed  to  make  conquests.  While  its 
subjects  were  disarmed,  and  its  nobles  excluded  from 
military  command,  it  carried  on  its  warlike  enterprises 
with  great  disadvantage.  This  ought  to  have  taught  the 
Venetians  to  rest  satisfied  with  making  self-preser- 
vation, and  the  enjoyment  of  domestic  security,  the 
objects  of  their  policy.  But  republics  are  apt  to  be 
seduced  by  the  spirit  of  ambition,  as  well  as  kings. 
When  the  Venetians  so  far  forgot  the  interior  defects 
in  their  government  as  to  aim  at  extensive  conquests, 
the  fatal  blow  which  they  received  in  the  war  excited 
by  the  league  of  Cambray  convinced  them  of  the  im- 
prudence and  danger  of  making  violent  efforts  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  genius  and  tendency  of  their  constitution. 

It  is  not,  however,  by  its  military,  but  by  its  nayal 
and  commercial  power  that  the  importance  of  the 
Venetian  commonwealth  must  be  estimated.  The  latter 
constituted  the  real  force  and  nerves  of  the  state.  The 
jealousy  of  government  did  not  extend  to  this  depart- 
ment. Nothing  was  apprehended  from  this  quarter  that 
could  prove  formidable  to  liberty.  The  senate  encou- 
raged the  nobles  to  trade,  and  to  serve  on  board  the 
fleet.  They  became  merchants  and  admirals.  They 
increased  the  wealth  of  their  country  by  their  industry. 
They  added  to  its  dominions  by  the  valour  with  which 
they  conducted  its  naval  armaments. 


1 28  A  VIEW   OF   THE  [SECTION  m. 

Commerce  was  an  inexhaustible  source  of  opulence 
lo  the  Venetians.  All  the  nations  in  Europe  depended 
upon  them,  not  only  for  the  commodities  of  the  East, 
but  for  various  manufactures  fabricated  by  them  alone, 
or  finished  with  a  dexterity  and  elegance  unknown  in 
other  countries.  From  this  extensive  commerce  the 
state  derived  such  immense  supplies  as  concealed  those 
vices  in  its  constitution  which  I  have  mentioned,  and 
enabled  it  to  keep  on  foot  such  armies  as  were  not  only 
an  over-match  for  the  force  which  any  of  its  neighbours 
could  bring  into  the  field,  but  were  sufficient  to  con- 
tend, for  some  time,  with  the  powerful  monarchs  be- 
yond the  Alps.  During  its  struggles  with  the  princes 
united  against  it  by  the  league  at  Cambray,  the  re- 
public levied  sums  which  even  in  the  present  age  would 
be  deemed  considerable ;  and  while  the  king  of  France 
paid  the  exorbitant  interest  which  I  have  mentioned 
for  the  money  advanced  to  him,  and  the  emperor,  eager 
to  borrow,  but  destitute  of  credit,  was  known  by  the 
name  of  Maximilian  the  Moneyless,  the  Venetians  raised 
whatever  sums  they  pleased,  at  the  moderate  premium 
of  five  in  the  hundred.5 

The  constitution  of  Florence  was  perfectly  the  re- 
verse of  the  Venetian.  It  partook  as  much  of  demo- 
cratical  turbulence  and  licentiousness,  as  the  other  of 
aristocratical  rigour.  Florence,  however,  was  a  com- 
mercial, not  a  military  democracy.  The  nature  of  its 
institutions  was  favourable  to  commerce,  and  the  genius 
of  the  people  was  turned  towards  it.  The  vast  wealth 
which  the  family  of  Medici  had  acquired  by  trade, 
together  with  the  magnificence,  the  generosity,  and 
the  virtue  of  the  first  Cosmo,  gave  him  such  an  as- 
cendant over  the  affections  as  well  as  the  counsels 
of  his  countrymen  that  though  the  forms  of  popular 

5  Hist,  de  la  Ligue  faite  &,  Cam-  Sandi,  Storia  civile  Veneziana,  liv. 
bray,  par  M.  1'Abbd  du  Bos,  liv.  v. —  viii.  c.  16,  p.  891,  etc. 


SECTION  m.]  STATE    OP   EUROPE.  129 

government  were  preserved,  though  the  various  de- 
partments of  administration  were  filled  by  magistral  es 
distinguished  by  the  ancient  names  and  elected  in  the 
usual  manner,  he  was  in  reality  the  head  of  the  com- 
monwealth, and  in  the  station  of  a  private  citizen  he 
possessed  supreme  authority.  Cosmo  transmitted  a 
considerable  degree  of  this  power  to  his  descendants ; 
and  during  a  greater  part  of  the  fifteenth  century  the 
political  state  of  Florence  was  extremely  singular.  The 
appearance  of  republican  government  subsisted,  the 
people  were  passionately  attached  to  it,  and  on  some 
occasions  contended  warmly  for  their  privileges ;  and 
yet  they  permitted  a  single  family  to  assume  the  direc- 
tion of  their  affairs,  almost  as  absolutely  as  if  it  had 
been  formally  invested  with  sovereign  power.  The 
jealousy  of  the  Medici  concurred  with  the  commercial 
spirit  of  the  Florentines  in  putting  the  military  force 
of  the  republic  upon  the  same  footing  with  that  of  the 
other  Italian  states.  The  troops  which  the  Florentines 
employed  in  their  wars  consisted  almost  entirely  of 
mercenary  soldiers,  furnished  by  the  condottieri,  or 
leaders  of  bands,  whom  they  took  into  their  pay. 

In  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  to  which  the  sovereignty 
of  the  island  of  Sicily  was  annexed,  the  feudal  govern- 
ment was  established  in  the  same  form  and  with  the 
same  defects  as  in  the  other  nations  of  Europe.  The 
frequent  and  violent  revolutions  which  happened  in 
that  monarchy  had  considerably  increased  these  defects, 
and  rendered  them  more  intolerable.  The  succession 
to  the  crown  of  Naples  had  been  so  often  interrupted 
or  altered,  and  so  many  princes  of  foreign  blood  had  at 
different  periods  obtained  possessior  of  the  throne,  that 
the  Neapolitan  nobility  had  lost  iu  a  great  measure  that 
attachment  to  the  family  of  their  sovereigns^  as  well  as 
that  reverence  for  their  persons,  which  in  other  feudal 
kingdoms  contributed  to  set  some  bounds  to  the  en- 


130  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTIOX  in 

croachments  of  the  barons  upon  the  royal  prerogative 
and  power.  At  the  same  time,  the  different  pretenders 
to  the  crown  being  obliged  to  court  the  barons  who 
adhered  to  them  and  on  whose  support  they  depended 
for  the  success  of  their  claims,  they  augmented  their 
privileges  by  liberal  concessions  and  connived  at  theii 
boldest  usurpations.  Even  when  seated  on  the  throne, 
it  was  dangerous  for  a  prince  who  held  his  sceptre  by 
a  disputed  title  to  venture  on  any  step  towards  extend- 
ing his  own  power  or  circumscribing  that  of  the  nobles. 

From  all  these  causes,  the  kingdom  of  Naples  was 
the  most  turbulent  of  any  in  Europe,  and  the  authority 
of  its  monarchs  the  least  extensive.  Though  Ferdinand 
I.,  who  began  his  reign  in  the  year  1468,  attempted  to 
break  the  power  of  the  aristocracy,  though  his  son 
Alphonso,  that  he  might  crush  it  at  once  by  cutting  off 
the  leaders  of  greatest  reputation  and  influence  among 
the  Neapolitan  barons,  ventured  to  commit  one  of  the 
most  perfidious  and  cruel  actions  recorded  in  history,  the 
order  of  nobles  was  nevertheless  more  exasperated  than 
humbled  by  their  measures.6  The  resentment  which 
these  outrages  excited  was  so  violent,  and  the  power  of 
the  malcontent  nobles  was  still  so  formidable,  that  to 
these  may  be  ascribed,  in  a  great  degree,  the  ease  and 
rapidity  with  which  Charles  VIII.  conquered  the  king- 
dom of  Naples.7 

The  event  that  gave  rise  to  the  violent  contests  con- 
cerning the  succession  to  the  crown  of  Naples  and 
Sicily,  which  brought  so  many  calamities  upon  these 
kingdoms,  happened  in  the  thirteenth  century.  Upon 
the  death  of  the  emperor  Frederic  II.,  Manfred,  his 
natural  son,  aspiring  to  the  Neapolitan  throne,  murdered 
his  brother,  the  emperor  Conrad  (if  we  may  believe 
contemporary  historians),  and  by  that  crime  obtained 

*  Giannone,  book  xxviii.  chap.  2,  7  Id.,  ibid.  p.  414. 

vol.  ii.  p.  -410,  etc. 


SECTION-  in.]  STATE  Off  EUROPE.  131 

possession  of  it.8  The  popes,  from  their  implacable 
enmity  to  the  house  of  Swabia,  not  only  refused  to 
recognise  Manfred's  title,  but  endeavoured  to  excite 
against  him  some  rival  capable  of  wresting  the  sceptre 
out  of  his  hand.  Charles,  count  of  Anjou,  the  brother 
of  St.  Louis,  king  of  France,  undertook  this;  and  he 
received  from  the  popes  the  investiture  of  the  kingdom 
of  Naples  and  Sicily  as  a  fief  held  of  the  holy  see. 
The  count  of  Anjou's  efforts  were  crowned  with  suc- 
cess ;  Manfred  fell  in  battle ;  and  he  took  possession 
of  the  vacant  throne.  But  soon  after,  Charles  sullied 
the  glory  which  he  had  acquired  by  the  injustice  and 
cruelty  with  which  he  put  to  death,  by  the  hands  of 
the  executioner,  Conradin,  the  last  prince  of  the  house 
of  Swabia,  and  the  rightful  heir  of  the  Neapolitan 
crown.  That  gallant  young  prince  asserted  his  title, 
to  the  last,  with  a  courage  worthy  of  a  better  fate.  On 
the  scaffold,  he  declared  Peter,  at  that  time  prince,  and 
soon  after  king,  of  Aragon,  who  had  married  Manfred's 
only  daughter,  his  heir ;  and,  throwing  his  glove  among 
the  people,  he  entreated  that  it  might  be  carried  to 
Peter,  as  the  symbol  by  which  he  conveyed  all  his 
rights  to  him.9  The  desire  of  avenging  the  insult 
offered  to  royalty  by  the  death  of  Conradin  concurred 
with  his  own  ambition  in  prompting  Peter  to  take  arms 
in  support  of  the  title  which  he  had  acquired.  From 
that  period  during  almost  two  centuries  the  houses  of 
Aragon  and  Anjou  contended  for  the  crown  of  Naples. 
Amidst  a  succession  of  revolutions  more  rapid,  as  well 
as  of  crimes  more  atrocious,  than  what  occur  in  the 
history  of  almost  any  other  kingdom,  monarchs  some- 
times of  the  Aragonese  line  and  sometimes  of  the  An- 
gevin were  seated  on  the  throne.  At  length  the  princes 
of  the  house  of  Aragon  obtained  such  firm  possession  of 

8  Struv.,   Corp.    Hist.    Germ.,   L  '  Giannone,  book  xix.  ch  4,  §  2. 

481. — Giannone,  book  xviii.  ch.  5. 

K  2 


132  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTION  m. 

this  long-disputed  inheritance  that  they  transmitted  it 
quietly  to  a  bastard  branch  of  their  family.10     [1434.] 

The  race  of  the  Angevin  kings,  however,  was  not 
extinct,  nor  had  they  relinquished  their  title  to  the 
Neapolitan  crown.  The  count  of  Maine  and  Provence,  the 
heir  of  this  family,  conveyed  all  his  rights  and  preten- 
sions to  Louis  XI.  and  to  his  successors.  Charles  VIII. , 
as  I  have  already  related,  crossed  the  Alps  at  the  head 
of  a  powerful  army  in  order  to  prosecute  his  claim  with 
a  degree  of  vigour  far  superior  to  that  which  the  princes 
from  whom  he  derived  it  had  been  capable  of  exerting. 
The  rapid  progress  of  his  arms  in  Italy,  as  well  as  the 
short  time  during  which  he  enjoyed  the  fruits  of  his 
success,  have  already  been  mentioned,  and  are  well 
known.  Frederic,  the  heir  of  the  illegitimate  branch  of 
the  Aragonese  family,  soon  recovered  the  throne  of 
which  Charles  had  dispossessed  him.  Louis  XII.  and 
Ferdinand  of  Aragon  united  against  this  prince,  whom 
both,  though  for  different  reasons,  considered  as  a 
usurper  and  agreed  to  divide  his  dominions  between 
them.  Frederic,  unable  to  resist  the  combined  monarchs, 
each  of  whom  was  far  his  superior  in  power,  resigned 
his  sceptre.  Louis  and  Ferdinand,  though  they  had 
.concurred  in  making  the  conquest,  differed  about  the 
division  of  it,  and  from  allies  became  enemies.  But 
Gonsalvo  de  Cordova,  partly  by  the  exertion  of  such 
military  talents  as  gave  him  a  just  title  to  the  appellation 
of  the  great  captain,  which  the  Spanish  historians  have 
bestowed  upon  him,  and  partly  by  such  shameless  and 
frequent  violations  of  the  most  solemn  engagements  as 
leave  an  indelible  stain  on  his  memory,  stripped  the 
French  of  all  that  they  possessed  in  the  Neapolitan 
dominions,  and  secured  the  peaceable  possession  of 
them  to  his  master.  These,  together  with  his  other 
kingdoms,  Ferdinand  transmitted  to  his  grandson, 

10  Giannonc,  book  xxvi.  ch.  2. 


SECTION  IIL]  STATE  OF   EUROPE.  133 

Charles  V.,  whose  right  to  possess  them,  if  not  alto- 
gether uncontrovertible,  seems  at  least  to  be  as  well 
founded  as  that  which  the  kings  of  France  set  up  in 
opposition  to  it.11 

There  is  nothing  in  the  political  constitution  or 
interior  government  of  the  duchy  of  Milan  so  re- 
markable as  to  require  a  particular  explanation.  But 
as  the  right  of  succession  to  that  fertile  province  was 
the  cause  or  the  pretext  of  almost  all  the  wars  car- 
ried on  in  Italy  during  the  reign  of  Charles  V.,  it  is 
necessary  to  trace  these  disputes  to  their  source,  and 
to  inquire  into  the  pretensions  of  the  various  com- 
petitors. 

During  the  long  and  fierce  contests  excited  in  Italy 
by  the  violence  of  the  Guelf  and  Ghibelline  factious, 
the  family  of  Visconti  rose  to  great  eminence  among 
their  fellow-citizens  of  Milan.  As  the  Yisconti  had 
adhered  uniformly  to  the  Ghibelline  or  imperial  in- 
terest, they,  by  way  of  recompense,  received  from  one 
emperor  the  dignity  of  perpetual  vicars  of  the  empire 
in  Italy;12  they  were  created,  by  another,  dukes  of 
Milan;  and,  together  with  that  title,  the  possession  of 
the  city  and  its  territories  was  bestowed  upon  them 
as  an  hereditary  fief.13  John,  king  of  France,  among 
other  expedients  for  raising  money  which  the  calami- 
ties of  his  reign  obliged  him  to  employ,  condescended 
to  give  one  of  his  daughters  in  marriage  to  John 
Galeazzo  Yisconti,  the  first  duke  of  Milan,  from  whom 
he  had  received  considerable  sums.  Valentine  Vis- 
conti, one  of  the  children  of  this  marriage,  married  her 
cousin,  Louis,  duke  of  Orleans,  the  only  brother  of 
Charles  VI.  In  their  marriage-contract,  which  the 

11  Droits  des  Hois  de  France  au          12  Petrarch.,  Epist,    ap.   Struv., 

Royaume  de  Sicile. — Me"moires  de  Corp.,  i.  625. 
Comines,  edit,  de  Fresnoy,  torn.  iv.  13  Leibnit,  Cod.  Jur.   Gent   Di 

part  ii.  p.  5.  plom.,  voL  i  p.  267. 


134  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTION  m- 

pope  confirmed,  it  was  stipulated  that  upon  failure  of 
heirs  male  in  the  family  of  Visconti  the  Duchy  of  Milan 
should  descend  to  the  posterity  of  Yalentine  and  the 
duke  of  Orleans.  That  event  took  place.  In  the  year 
1447,  Philip  Maria,  the  last  prince  of  the  ducal  family 
of  Yisconti,  died.  Various  competitors  claimed  the 
succession.  Charles,  duke  of  Orleans,  pleaded  his 
right  to  it  founded  on  the  marriage-contract  of  his 
mother,  Yalentine  Yisconti.  Alfonso,  king  of  Naples, 
claimed  it  in  consequence  of  a  will  made  by  Philip 
Maria  in  his  favour.  The  emperor  contended  that  upon 
the  extinction  of  male  issue  in  the  family  of  Yisconti 
the  fief  returned  to  the  superior  lord  and  ought  to  be 
re-annexed  to  the  empire.  The  people  of  Milan, 
smitten  with  the  love  of  liberty  which  in  that  age  pre- 
vailed among  the  Italian  states,  declared  against  the 
dominion  of  any  master,  and  established  a  republican 
form  of  government. 

But  during  the  struggle  among  so  many  competitors, 
the  prize  for  which  they  contended  was  seized  by  one 
from  whom  none  of  them  apprehended  any  danger. 
Francis  Sforza,  the  natural  son  of  Jacomuzzo  Sforza, 
whom  his  courage  and  abilities  had  elevated  from  the 
rank  of  a  peasant  to  be  one  of  the  most  eminent  and 
powerful  of  the  Italian  condottierij  having  succeeded 
his  father  in  the  command  of  the  adventurers  who  fol- 
lowed his  standard,  had  married  a  natural  daughter  of 
the  last  duke  of  Milan.  Upon  this  shadow  of  a  title 
Francis  founded  his  pretensions  to  the  duchy,  which 
he  supported  with  such  talents  and  valour  as  placed  him 
at  last  on  the  ducal  throne.  The  virtues,  as  well  as 
abilities,  with  which  he  governed,  inducing  his  subjects 
to  forget  the  defects  in  his  title,  he  transmitted  his  do- 
minions quietly  to  his  son ;  from  whom  they  descended 
to  his  grandson.  He  was  murdered  by  his  grand-uncle 
Ludovico,  gurnamed  the  Moor,  who  took  possession  of 


SECTION  in.]  STATE  OF  EUROPE.  135 

the  duchy;  and  his  right  to  it  was  confirmed  by  the 
investiture  of  the  emperor  Maximilian,  in  the  year 
1494.14 

Louis  XL,  who  took  pleasure  in  depressing  the 
princes  of  the  blood,  and  who  admired  the  political 
abilities  of  Francis  Sforza,  would  not  permit  the  duke 
of  Orleans  to  take  any  step  in  prosecution  of  his  right 
to  the  duchy  of  Milan.  Ludovico  the  Moor  kept  up 
such  a  close  connection  with  Charles  VIII.  that  during 
the  greater  part  of  his  reign  the  claim  of  the  family  of 
Orleans  continued  to  lie  dormant.  But  when  the  crown 
of  France  devolved  on  Louis  XII.,  duke  of  Orleans, 
he  instantly  asserted  the  rights  of  his  family  with  the 
ardour  which  it  was  natural  to  expect,  and  marched  at 
the  head  of  a  powerful  army  to  support  them.  Ludo- 
vico Sforza,  incapable  of  contending  with  such  a  rival, 
was  stripped  of  all  his  dominions  in  the  space  of  a  few 
days.  The  king,  clad  in  the  ducal  robes,  entered 
Milan  in  triumph;  and  soon  after,  Ludovico,  having 
been  betrayed  by  the  Swiss  in  his  pay,  was  sent  a 
prisoner  into  France,  and  shut  up  in  the  castle  of 
Loches,  where  he  lay  unpitied  during  the  remainder 
of  his  days.  In  consequence  of  one  of  the  singular 
revolutions  which  occur  so  frequently  in  the  history  of 
the  Milanese,  his  son,  Maximilian  Sforza,  was  placed 
on  the  ducal  throne,  of  which  he  kept  possession  dur- 
ing the  reign  of  Louis  XII.  But  his  successor,  Fran- 
cis I.,  was  too  high-spirited  and  enterprising  tamely  to 
relinquish  his  title.  As  soon  as  he  was  seated  upon  the 
throne,  he  prepared  to  invade  the  Milanese;  and  his 
right  of  succession  to  it  appears,  from  this  detail,  to 
have  been  more  natural  and  more  just  than  that  of  any 
other  competitor.  [1512.] 

It  is  unnecessary  to  enter  into  any  detail  with  re- 

14  Ripalm.,  Hist.  Mediol.,  lib.  vi  Du  Mont,  Corps.  Diplom.,  torn,  iii 
p.  654,  ap.  Struv.,  Corp.,  i.  930. —  p.  ii.  333,  ibid 


136  A  VIEW  OP  THE  [SECTION  in. 

spect  to  the  form  of  government  in  Genoa,  Parma, 
Modena,  and  the  other  inferior  states  of  Italy.  Their 
names,  indeed,  will  often  occur  in  the  following  his- 
tory. But  the  power  of  these  states  themselves  was  so 
inconsiderable  that  their  fate  depended  little  upon  their 
own  efforts;  and  the  frequent  revolutions  which  they 
underwent  were  brought  about  rather  by  the  operations 
of  the  princes  who  attacked  or  defended  them  than  by 
anything  peculiar  in  their  internal  constitution. 

Of  the  great  kingdoms  on  this  side  of  the  Alps, 
Spain  is  one  of  the  most  considerable ;  and,  as  it  was 
the  hereditary  domain  of  Charles  V.,  as  well  as  the 
chief  source  of  his  power  and  wealth,  a  distinct  know- 
ledge of  its  political  constitution  is  of  capital  importance 
towards  understanding  the  transactions  of  his  reign. 

The  Yandals  and  Goths,  who  overturned  the  Eoman 
power  in  Spain,  established  a  form  of  government  in 
that  country,  and  introduced  customs  and  laws,  per- 
fectly similar  to  those  which  were  established  in  the 
rest  of  Europe  by  the  other  victorious  tribes  which 
acquired  settlements  there.  For  some  time,  society 
advanced,  among  the  new  inhabitants  of  Spain,  by  the 
same  steps,  and  seemed  to  hold  the  same  course,  as  in 
other  European  nations.  To  this  progress  a  sudden 
stop  was  put  by  the  invasion  of  the  Saracens  or  Moors 
from  Africa.  The  Goths  could  not  withstand  the 
efforts  of  their  enthusiastic  valour,  which  subdued  the 
greatest  part  of  Spain  with  the  same  impetuous  rapidity 
that  distinguishes  all  the  operations  of  their  arms.  The 
ronquerors  introduced  into  the  country  in  which  they 
settled  the  Mahometan  religion,  the  Arabic  language, 
the  manners  of  the  East,  together  with  that  taste  for 
the  arts  and  that  love  of  elegance  and  splendour  which 
the  Caliphs  had  begun  to  cultivate  among  their  sub- 
jects. [712.] 

Such  Gothic  nobles  as   disdained   to   submit  to  the 


SECTION  in.]  STATE  OF  EUROPE.  ]  37 

Moorish  yoke  fled  for  refuge  to  the  inaccessible  moun- 
tains of  Asturias.  There  they  comforted  themselves 
with  enjoying  the  exercise  of  the  Christian  religion 
and  with  maintaining  the  authority  of  their  ancient 
laws.  Being  joined  by  many  of  the  boldest  and  most 
warlike  among  their  countrymen,  they  sallied  out  upon 
the  adjacent  settlements  of  the  Moors  in  small  parties; 
but,  venturing  only  upon  short  excursions  at  first,  they 
were  satisfied  with  plunder  and  revenge,  without  think- 
ing of  conquest.  By  degrees  their  strength  increased, 
their  views  enlarged,  a  regular  government  was  estab- 
lished among  them,  and  they  began  to  aim  at  extending 
their  territories.  While  they  pushed  on  their  attacks 
with  the  unremitting  ardour  excited  by  zeal  for  re- 
ligion, by  the  desire  of  vengeance,  and  by  the  hope 
of  rescuing  their  country  from  oppression,  while  they 
conducted  their  operations  with  the  courage  natural  to 
men  who  had  no  other  occupation  but  war,  and  who 
were  strangers  to  all  the  arts  which  corrupt  or  enfeeble 
the  mind,  the  Moors  gradually  lost  many  of  the  advan- 
tages to  which  they  had  been  indebted  for  their  first 
success.  They  threw  off  all  dependence  on  the  Ca- 
liphs ; 15  they  neglected  to  preserve  a  close  connection 
with  their  countrymen  in  Africa ;  their  empire  in  Spain 
was  split  into  many  small  kingdoms ;  the  arts  which 
they  cultivated,  together  with  the  luxury  to  which  theso 
gave  rise,  relaxed  in  some  measure  the  force  of  their 
military  institutions  and  abated  the  vigour  of  their 
war-like  spirit.  The  Moors,  however,  continued  still  to 
be  a  gallant  people,  and  possessed  great  resources.  Ac- 
cording to  the  magnificent  style  of  the  Spanish  his- 
torians, eight  centuries  of  almost  uninterrupted  war 
elapsed,  and  three  thousand  seven  hundred  battles  were 
fought,  before  the  last  of  the  Moorish  kingdoms  in  Spain 
submitted  to  the  Christian  arms.  [1492.] 

u  Jos.  Sim.  Assemauiii,  Histor.  Ital.  Scriptores,  vol.  in.  p.  135. 


138  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTION  nt 

As  the  Christians  made  their  conquests  upon  the 
Mahometans  at  various  periods  and  under  different 
leaders,  each  formed  the  territory  which  he  had  wrested 
from  the  common  enemy  into  an  independent  state. 
Spain  was  divided  into  almost  as  many  separate  king- 
doms as  it  contained  provinces;  in  each  city  of  note  a 
petty  monarch  established  his  throne  and  assumed  all 
the  ensigns  of  royalty.  In  a  series  of  years,  however, 
by  the  usual  events  of  intermarriages,  or  succession,  or 
conquest,  all  these  inferior  principalities  were  annexed 
to  the  more  powerful  kingdoms  of  Castile  and  of 
Aragon.  At  length,  by  the  fortunate  marriage  of 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  the  former  the  hereditary 
monarch  of  Aragon,  and  the  latter  raised  to  the  throne 
of  Castile  by  the  affection  of  her  subjects,  all  the 
Spanish  crowns  were  united,  and  descended  in  the  same 
line.  [1481.] 

From  this  period  the  political  constitution  of  Spain 
began  to  assume  a  regular  and  uniform  appearance ; 
the  genius  of  its  government  may  be  delineated,  and 
the  progress  of  its  laws  and  manners  may  be  traced, 
with  certainty.  Notwithstanding  the  singular  revolu- 
tion which  the  invasion  of  the  Moors  occasioned  in 
Spain,  and  the  peculiarity  of  its  fate  in  being  so  long 
subject  to  the  Mahometan  yoke,  the  customs  introduced 
by  the  Yandals  and  Goths  had  taken  such  deep  root, 
and  were  so  thoroughly  incorporated  with  the  frame 
of  its  government,  that  in  every  province  which  the 
Christians  recovered  from  the  Moors  we  find  the  con- 
dition of  individuals,  as  well  as  the  political  constitu- 
tion, nearly  the  same  as  in  other  nations  of  Europe. 
Lands  were  held  by  the  same  tenure ;  justice  was 
dispensed  in  the  same  form ;  the  same  privileges  were 
claimed  by  the  nobility,  and  the  same  power  exercised 
by  the  cortes,  or  general  assembly  of  the  kingdom. 
Several  circumstances  contributed  to  secure  this  per- 


SECTION  in.]  STATE  OF  EUROPE.  139 

manence  of  the  feudal  institutions  in  Spain,  notwith- 
standing the  conquests  of  the  Moors,  which  seemed 
to  have  overturned  them.  Such  of  the  Spaniards  as 
preserved  their  independence  adhered  to  their  ancient 
customs,  not  only  from  attachment  to  them,  but  out 
of  antipathy  to  the  Moors,  to  whose  ideas  concerning 
property  and  government  these  customs  were  totally 
repugnant.  Even  among  the  Christians  who  submitted 
to  the  Moorish  conquerors  and  consented  to  become 
their  subjects,  ancient  customs  were  not  entirely  abol- 
ished. They  were  permitted  to  retain  their  religion, 
their  laws  concerning  private  property,  their  forms  of 
administering  justice,  and  their  mode  of  levying  taxes. 
The  followers  of  Mahomet  are  the  only  enthusiasts  who 
have  united  the  spirit  of  toleration  with  zeal  for  making 
proselytes,  and  who,  at  the  same  time  that  they  took 
arms  to  propagate  the  doctrine  of  their  prophet,  per- 
mitted such  as  would  not  embrace  it  to  adhere  to  their 
own  tenets  and  to  practise  their  own  rites.  To  this 
peculiarity  in  the  genius  of  the  Mahometan  religion,  as 
well  as  to  the  desire  which  the  Moors  had  of  reconciling 
the  Christians  to  their  yoke,  it  was  owing  that  the 
ancient  manners  and  laws  in  Spain  survived  the  violent 
shock  of  a  conquest,  and  were  permitted  to  subsist  not- 
withstanding the  introduction  of  a  new  religion  and  a 
new  form  of  government  into  that  country.  It  is  obvious 
from  all  these  particulars  that  the  Christians  must  have 
found  it  extremely  easy  to  re-establish  manners  and 
government  on  their  ancient  foundations  in  those  pro- 
vinces of  Spain  which  they  wrested  successively  from 
the  Moors.  A  considerable  part  of  the  people  retained 
such  a  fondness  for  the  customs  and  such  a  reverence 
for  the  laws  of  their  ancestors  that,  wishing  to  see  them 
completely  restored,  they  were  not  only  willing  but 
eager  to  resume  the  former  and  to  recognise  the 
authority  of  the  latter. 


140  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTION  in. 

But  though  the  feudal  form  of  government,  with  all 
the  institutions  which  characterise  it,  was  thus  preserved 
in  Castile  and  Aragon,  as  well  as  in  all  the  kingdoms 
which  depended  on  these  crowns,  there  were  certain 
peculiarities  in  their  political  constitutions  which  dis- 
tinguish them  from  those  of  any  other  country  in 
Europe.  The  royal  prerogative,  extremely  limited  in 
every  feudal  kingdom,  was  circumscribed  in  Spain 
within  such  narrow  bounds  as  reduced  the  power  of 
the  sovereign  almost  to  nothing.  The  privileges  of  the 
nobility  were  great  in  proportion,  and  extended  so  far 
as  to  border  on  absolute  independence.  The  immuni- 
ties of  the  cities  were  likewise  greater  than  in  other 
feudal  kingdoms ;  they  possessed  considerable  influence 
in  the  cortes,  and  they  aspired  at  obtaining  more.  Such 
a  state  of  society,  in  which  the  political  machine  was  so 
ill  adjusted  and  the  several  members  of  the  legislature 
so  improperly  balanced,  produced  internal  disorders  in 
the  kingdoms  of  Spain,  which  rose  beyond  the  pitch 
of  turbulence  and  anarchy  usual  under  the  feudal 
government.  The  whole  tenor  of  the  Spanish  history 
confirms  the  truth  of  this  observation ;  and  when  the 
mutinous  spirit  to  which  the  genius  of  their  policy  gave 
birth  and  vigour  was  no  longer  restrained  and  overawed 
by  the  immediate  dread  of  the  Moorish  arms,  it  broke 
out  into  more  frequent  insurrections  against  the  govern- 
ment of  their  princes,  as  well  as  more  outrageous  insults 
on  their  dignity,  than  occur  in  the  annals  of  any  other 
country.  These  were  accompanied  at  some  times  with 
more  liberal  sentiments  concerning  the  rights  of  the 
people,  at  other  times  with  more  elevated  notions  con- 
cerning the  privileges  of  the  nobles,  than  were  common 
in  other  nations. 

In  the  principality  of  Catalonia,  which  was  annexed 
to  the  kingdom  of  Aragon,  the  impatience  of  the  people 
to  obtain  a  redress  of  their  grievances  having  prompted 


SECTION  in.]  STATE  OF  EUROPE.  141 

them  to  take  arms  against  their  sovereign,  John  II., 
they,  by  a  solemn  deed,  recalled  the  oath  of  allegiance 
which  they  had  sworn  to  him,  declared  him  and  his 
posterity  to  be  unworthy  of  the  throne,16  and  en- 
deavoured to  establish  a  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment, in  order  to  secure  the  perpetual  enjoyment  of 
that  liberty  after  which  they  aspired.17  Nearly  about 
the  same  period,  the  indignation  of  the  Castilian 
nobility  against  the  weak  and  flagitious  administration 
of  Henry  IY.  having  led  them  to  combine  against  him, 
they  arrogated,  as  one  of  the  privileges  belonging  to 
their  order,  the  right  of  trying  and  of  passing  sentence 
on  their  sovereign.  That  the  exercise  of  this  power 
might  be  as  public  and  solemn  as  the  pretension  to  it 
was  bold,  they  summoned  all  the  nobility  of  their  party 
to  meet  at  Avila;  a  spacious  theatre  was  erected  in  a 
plain  without  the  walls  of  the  town  ;  an  image  repre- 
senting the  king  was  seated  on  a  throne,  clad  in  royal 
robes,  with  a  crown  on  its  head,  a  sceptre  in  its  hand, 
and  the  sword  of  justice  by  its  side.  The  accusation 
against  the  king  was  read,  and  the  sentence  of  deposi- 
tion was  pronounced,  in  presence  of  a  numerous  assembly. 
At  the  close  of  the  first  article  of  the  charge,  the  arch- 
bishop of  Toledo  advanced  and  tore  the  crown  from  the 
nead  of  the  image ;  at  the  close  of  the  second,  the  Conde 
de  Placentia  snatched  the  sword  of  justice  from  its  side  ; 
at  the  close  of  the  third,  the  Conde  de  JSenevente  wrested 
the  sceptre  from  its  hand ;  at  the  close  of  the  last,  Don 
Diego  Lopes  de  Stuniga  tumbled  it  headlong  from  the 
throne.  At  the  same  instant,  Don  Alfonzo,  Henry's 
brother,  was  proclaimed  king  of  Castile  and  Leon  in  his 
stead.18 

16  Zurita,  Anales  de  Arag.,  torn.       Marinseus  Siculus,  De  Reb.  Hispan.. 
iv.  pp.  113,  115,  etc.  apud    Schotti  Script.    Hispan.,   fol. 

17  Ferrera,  Hist.  d'Espagne,  torn.       429. 

vii.    p.    92. — P.     Orleans,     ReVol.  1S  Marian.,  Hist,  lib.  xxxiii.  c.  9. 

d'Espagne,    torn,    iii   p.    155.— L.       [1465.] 


L42  A  VIEW  OF  THE  LSECTION  m 

The  most  daring  leaders  of  faction  would  not  have 
ventured  on  these  measures,  nor  have  conducted  them 
with  such  public  ceremony,  if  the  sentiments  of  the 
people  concerning  the  royal  dignity  had  not  been  so 
formed  by  the  laws  and  policy  to  which  they  were 
accustomed,  both  in  Castile  and  Catalonia,  as  prepared 
them  to  approve  of  such  extraordinary  proceedings,  or 
to  acquiesce  in  them. 

In  Aragon  the  form  of  government  was  monarchical, 
but  the  genius  and  maxims  of  it  were  purely  republican. 
The  kings,  who  were  long  elective,  retained  only  the 
shadow  of  power ;  the  real  exercise  of  it  was  in  the 
cortes,  or  parliament  of  the  kingdom.  This  supreme 
assembly  was  composed  of  four  different  arms  or  mem- 
bers :  the  nobility  of  the  first  rank ;  the  equestrian  order, 
or  nobility  of  the  second  class ;  the  representatives  of 
the  cities  and  towns,  whose  right  to  a  place  in  the 
cortes,  if  we  may  give  credit  to  the  historians  of 
Aragon,  was  coeval  with  the  constitution  ;  the  eccle- 
siastical order,  composed  of  the  dignitaries  of  the 
church,  together  with  the  representatives  of  the  inferior 
clergy.19  No  law  could  pass  in  this  assembly  without 
the  assent  of  every  single  member  who  had  a  right  to 
vote.20  Without  the  permission  of  the  cortes  no  tax 
could  be  imposed,  no  war  could  be  declared,  no  peace 
could  be  concluded,  no  money  could  be  coined,  nor 
could  any  alteration  be  made  in  the  current  specie.31 
The  power  of  reviewing  the  proceedings  of  all  inferior 
courts,  the  privilege  of  inspecting  every  department  of 
administration,  and  the  right  of  redressing  all  griev- 
ances, belonged  to  the  cortes.  Nor  did  those  who  con- 
ceived themselves  to  be  aggrieved  address  the  cortes 
in  the  humble  tone  of  supplicants  and  petition  for 

19  Forma  de  celebrar  Cortes  en  21  Hier.  Blanca,  Comment.  Rer. 
Aragon,  por  Geron.  MarteL  Aragon.,  ap.  Schot.  Script.  Hispau. 

'"'  Martel,  ibid.,  p.  2.  vol.  iii  p.  750. 


SECTION  in.]  STATE  OF  EUROPE.  143 

redress  :  they  demanded  it  as  the  birthright  of  freemen, 
and  required  the  guardians  of  their  liberty  to  decide 
with  respect  to  the  points  which  they  laid  before  them.M 
This  sovereign  court  was  held  during  several  centuries 
every  year ;  but,  in  consequence  of  a  regulation  intro- 
duced about  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
it  was  convoked  from  that  period  only  once  in  two 
years.  After  it  was  assembled,  the  king  had  no  right 
to  prorogue  or  dissolve  it  without  its  own  consent ;  and 
the  session  continued  forty  days.23 

Not  satisfied  with  having  erected  such  formidable 
barriers  against  the  encroachments  of  the  royal  pre- 
rogative, nor  willing  to  commit  the  sole  guardianship 
of  their  liberties  entirely  to  the  vigilance  and  authority 
of  an  assembly  similar  to  the  diets,  states-general,  and 
parliaments  in  which  the  other  feudal  nations  have 
placed  so  much  confidence,  the  Aragonese  had  recourse 
to  an  institution  peculiar  to  themselves,  and  elected  a 
justiza,  or  supreme  Judge.  This  magistrate,  whose 
office  bore  some  resemblance  to  that  of  the  cphori  in 
ancient  Sparta,  acted  as  the  protector  of  the  people 
and  the  controller  of  the  prince.  The  person  of  the 
justiza  was  sacred,  his  power  and  jurisdiction  almost 
unbounded.  He  was  the  supreme  interpreter  of  the 
laws.  Hot  only  inferior  judges,  but  the  kings  them- 
selves, were  bound  to  consult  him  in  every  doubtful 
case  and  to  receive  his  responses  with  implicit  defer- 
ence.24 An  appeal  lay  to  him  from  the  royal  judges,  as 
well  as  from  those  appointed  by  the  barons  within  their 
respective  territories.  Even  when  no  appeal  was  made 
to  him,  he  could  interpose  by  his  own  authority,  pro- 
hibit the  ordinary  judge  to  proceed,  take  immediate 

22  Martel,  Forma  de  celebrar,  p.  2.  sponses  of  the  justiza  to  James  II., 

'"  Hier.     Blanca,    Comment,    p.  who  reigned   towards   the   close  of 

763.  the    thirteenth    century.        Blanca, 

74  Blanca   has  preserved  two  re-  p.  748. 


144  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTION  m. 

cognizance  of  the  cause  himself,  and  remove  the  party 
accused  to  the  manifestation,  or  prison  of  the  state,  to 
which  no  person  had  access  but  by  his  permission. 
His  power  was  exerted  with  no  less  vigour  and  effect  in 
superintending  the  administration  of  government  than 
in  regulating  the  course  of  justice.  It  was  the  preroga- 
tive of  the  justiza  to  inspect  the  conduct  of  the  king. 
He  had  a  title  to  review  all  the  royal  proclamations  and 
patents,  and  to  declare  Avhether  or  not  they  were  agree- 
able to  law  and  ought  to  be  carried  into  execution.  He, 
by  his  sole  authority,  could  exclude  any  of  the  king's 
ministers  from  the  conduct  of  affairs  and  call  them  to 
answer  for  their  maladministration.  He  himself  was 
accountable  to  the  cortes  only  for  the  manner  in  which 
he  discharged  the  duties  of  this  high  office  and  per- 
formed functions  of  the  greatest  importance  that  could 
be  committed  to  a  subject.26 

It  is  evident,  from  a  bare  enumeration  of  the  privi- 
leges of  the  Aragonese  cortes,  as  well  as  of  the  rights 
6elonging  to  the  justiza,  that  a  very  small  portion  ol 
power  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  king.  The  Arago- 
nese seem  to  have  been  solicitous  that  their  monarchs 
should  know  and  feel  this  state  of  impotence  to  which 
they  were  reduced.  Even  in  swearing  allegiance  to 
their  sovereign,  an  act  which  ought  naturally  to  be 
accompanied  with  professions  of  submission  and  re- 
spect, they  devised  an  oath  in  such  a  form  as  to  remind 
him  of  his  dependence  on  his  subjects.  "  We,"  said 
the  justiza  to  the  king  in  the  name  of  his  high-spirited 
barons,  "who  are  each  of  us  as  good,  and  who  are 
altogether  more  powerful  than  you,  promise  obedience 
to  your  government  if  you  maintain  our  rights  and 
liberties ;  but  if  not,  not."  Conformably  to  this  oath 
they  established  it  as  a  fundamental  article  in  their 
constitution  that  if  the  king  should  violate  their  rights 

2i  Note  XXXI.— Hier.  BJanca,  Comment.,  pp.  747,  755. 


3KCT10N  m.]  STATE  OF  EUROPE.  146 

and  privileges  it  was  lawful  for  the  people  to  disclaim 
him  as  their  sovereign,  and  to  elect  another,  even 
though  a  heathen,  in  his  place.26  The  attachment  of 
the  Aragonese  to  this  singular  constitution  of  govern- 
ment was  extreme,  and  their  respect  for  it  approached 
to  superstitious  veneration.27  In  the  preamble  to  one 
of  their  laws  they  declare  that  such  was  the  barrenness 
of  their  country,  and  the  poverty  of  the  inhabitants, 
that,  if  it  were  not  on  account  of  the  liberties  by  which 
they  were  distinguished  from  other  nations,  the  people 
would  abandon  it  and  go  in  quest  of  a  settlement  to 
some  more  fruitful  region.28 

In  Castile  there  were  not  such  peculiarities  in  the 
form  of  Government  as  to  establish  any  remarkable 
distinction  between  it  and  that  of  the  other  European 
nations.  The  executive  part  of  government  was  com- 
mitted to  the  king,  but  with  a  prerogative  extremely 
limited.  The  legislative  authority  resided  in  the  cortes, 
which  was  composed  of  the  nobility,  the  dignified 
ecclesiastics,  and  the  representatives  of  the  cities.  The 
assembly  of  the  cortes  in  Castile  was  very  ancient,  and 
seems  to  have  been  almost  coeval  with  the  constitution. 
The  members  of  the  three  different  orders,  who  had  a 
right  of  suffrage,  met  in  one  place  and  deliberated  as 
one  collective  body,  the  decisions  of  which  were  regu- 
lated by  the  sentiments  of  the  majority.  The  right  of 
imposing  taxes,  of  enacting  laws,  and  of  redressing 
grievances  belonged  to  this  assembly ;  and,  in  order 
to  secure  the  assent  of  the  king  to  such  statutes  and 
regulations  as  were  deemed  salutary  or  beneficial  to 
the  kingdom,  it  was  usual  in  the  cortes  to  take  no  step 
towards  granting  money  until  all  business  relative  to 
the  public  welfare  was  concluded.  The  representatives 

26  Hier.     Blanca,    Comment.,    p.  28  Hier.     Blanca,    Comment,   p. 

720.  751. 

-'  Note  XXXII. 

VOL.    1.  L 


146  A  VIEW  0£  THE  [SECTION  m. 

of  cities  seemed  to  have  obtained  a  seat  very  early  in  the 
cortes  of  Castile,  and  soon  acquired  such  influence  and 
credit  as  were  very  uncommon  at  a  period  when  the 
splendour  and  pre-eminence  of  the  nobility  had  eclipsed 
or  depressed  all  other  orders  of  men.  The  number  of 
members  from  cities  bore  such  a  proportion  to  that  of 
the  whole  collective  body  as  rendered  them  extremely 
respectable  in  the  cortes.29  The  degree  of  considera- 
tion which  they  possessed  in  the  state  may  be  estimated 
by  one  event.  Upon  the  death  of  John  I.  a  council 
of  regency  was  appointed  to  govern  the  kingdom  during 
the  minority  of  his  son.  It  was  composed  of  an  equal 
number  of  noblemen  and  of  deputies  chosen  by  the 
cities ;  the  latter  were  admitted  to  the  same  rank  and 
invested  with  the  same  powers  as  prelates  and  grandees 
of  the  first  order.30  But  though  the  members  of  com- 
munities in  Castile  were  elevated  above  the  condition 
wherein  they  were  placed  in  other  kingdoms  of  Europe, 
though  they  had  attained  to  such  political  importance 
that  even  the  proud  and  jealous  spirit  of  the  feudal 
aristocracy  could  not  exclude  them  from  a  considerable 
share  in  government,  yet  the  nobles,  notwithstanding 
these  acquisitions  of  the  commons,  continued  to  assert 
the  privileges  of  their  order,  in  opposition  to  the  crown, 
in  a  tone  extremely  high.  There  was  not  any  body  of 
nobility  in  Europe  more  distinguished  for  independence 
of  spirit,  haughtiness  of  deportment,  and  bold  preten- 
sions than  that  of  Castile.  The  history  of  that  mon- 
archy affords  the  most  striking  examples  of  the  vigilance 
with  which  they  observed,  and  of  the  vigour  with  which 
they  opposed,  every  measure  of  their  king's  that  tended 
to  encroach  on  their  jurisdiction,  to  diminish  their 
dignity,  or  to  abridge  their  power.  Even  in  their 
ordinary  intercourse  with  their  monarchs  they  preserved 
such  a  consciousness  of  their  rank  that  the  nobles 

29  Note  XXXIIL  30  Marian.,  Hist.,  lib.  rviii.  c.  16. 


SECTION  in.]  STATE  OP  EUEOPE.  147 

of  the  first  order  claimed  it  as  a  privilege  to  be  covered 
in  the  royal  presence,  and  approached  their  sovereigns 
rather  as  equals  than  as  subjects. 

The  constitutions  of  the  subordinate  monarchies 
which  depended  on  the  crowns  of  Castile  and  Aragon 
nearly  resembled  those  of  the  kingdoms  to  which  they 
were  annexed.  In  all  of  them,  the  dignity  and  inde- 
pendence of  the  nobles  were  great,  the  immunities  and 
power  of  the  cities  were  considerable. 

An  attentive  observation  of  the  singular  situation  of 
Spain,  as  well  as  the  various  events  which  occurred 
there  from  the  invasion  of  the  Moors  to  the  union  of 
its  kingdom  under  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  will  dis- 
cover the  causes  to  which  all  the  peculiarities  in  its 
political  constitution  I  have  pointed  out  ought  to  be 
ascribed. 

As  the  provinces  of  Spain  were  wrested  from  the 
Mahometans  gradually  and  with  difficulty,  the  nobles 
who  followed  the  standard  of  any  eminent  leader  in 
these  wars  conquered  not  for  him  alone,  but  for  them- 
selves. They  claimed  a  share  in  the  lands  which  their 
valour  had  won  from  the  enemy,  and  their  prosperity 
and  power  increased  in  proportion  as  the  territory  of 
the  prince  extended. 

During  their  perpetual  wars  with  the  Moors,  the  mon- 
archs  of  the  several  kingdoms  in  Spain  depended  so 
much  on  their  nobles  that  it  became  necessary  to  con- 
ciliate their  good  will  by  successive  grants  of  new  honours 
and  privileges.  By  the  time  that  any  prince  could 
establish  his  dominion  in  a  conquered  province,  the 
greater  part  of  the  territory  was  parcelled  out  by  him 
among  his  barons,  with  such  jurisdiction  and  immuni- 
ties as  raised  them  almost  to  sovereign  power. 

At  the  same  time,  the  kingdoms  erected  in  so  many 
different  corners  of  Spain  were  of  inconsiderable  extent. 
The  petty  monarch  was  but  little  elevated  above  his 

L  2 


148  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTION  in. 

nobles.  They,  feeling  themselves  to  be  almost  his  equals, 
acted  as  such,  and  could  not  look  up  to  the  kings  of  such 
limited  domains  with  the  same  reverence  that  the  sove- 
reigns of  the  great  monarchies  in  Europe  were  viewed  by 
their  subjects.31 

While  these  circumstances  concurred  in  exalting  the 
nobility  and  in  depressing  the  royal  authority,  there 
were  other  causes  which  raised  the  cities  in  Spain  to 
consideration  and  power. 

As  the  open  country,  during  the  wars  with  the  Moors, 
was  perpetually  exposed  to  the  excursions  of  the  enemy, 
with  whom  no  peace  or  truce  was  so  permanent  as  to 
prove  any  lasting  security,  self-preservation  obliged 
persons  of  all  ranks  to  fix  their  residence  in  places  of 
strength.  The  castles  of  the  barons,  which  in  other 
countries  afforded  a  commodious  retreat  from  the 
depredations  of  banditti  or  from  the  transient  violence 
of  any  interior  commotion,  were  unable  to  resist  an 
enemy  whose  operations  were  conducted  with  regular 
and  persevering  vigour.  Cities,  in  which  great  numbers 
united  for  their  mutual  defence,  were  the  only  places  in 
which  people  could  reside  with  any  prospect  of  safety. 
To  this  was  owing  the  rapid  growth  of  those  cities  in 
Spain  of  which  the  Christians  recovered  possession. 
All  who  fled  from  the  Moorish  yoke  resorted  to  them, 
as  to  an  asylum ;  and  in  them  the  greater  part  of  those 
who  took  the  field  against  the  Mahometans  established 
their  families. 

Several  of  these  cities,  during  a  longer  or  shorter 
course  of  years,  were  the  capitals  of  little  states,  and 
enjoyed  all  the  advantages  which  accelerate  the  in- 
crease of  inhabitants  in  every  place  that  is  the  seat  of 
government. 

From  these  concurring  causes,  the  number  of  cities 
in  Spain  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  had 

31  Note  XXXIV. 


SECTION  in.]  STATE  OF  EUROPE.  149 

become  considerable,  and  they  were  peopled  far  beyond 
the  proportion  which  was  common  in  other  parts  of 
Europe,  except  in  Italy  and  the  Low  Countries.  The 
Moors  had  introduced  manufactures  into  those  cities 
while  under  their  dominion.  The  Christians,  who,  by 
intermixture  with  them,  had  learned  their  arts,  con- 
tinued to  cultivate  these.  Trade,  in  several  of  the 
Spanish  towns,  appears  to  have  been  carried  on  with 
vigour ;  and  the  spirit  of  commerce  continued  to  pre- 
serve the  number  of  their  inhabitants,  as  the  sense  of 
danger  had  first  induced  them  to  crowd  together. 

As  the  Spanish  cities  were  populous,  many  of  the 
inhabitants  were  of  a  rank  superior  to  those  who  resided 
in  towns  in  other  countries  of  Europe.  That  cause 
which  contributed  chiefly  to  their  population  affected 
equally  persons  of  every  condition,  who  flocked  thither 
promiscuously,  in  order  to  find  shelter  there,  or  in 
hopes  of  making  a  stand  against  the  enemy  with  greater 
advantage  than  in  any  other  station.  The  persons 
elected  as  their  representatives  in  the  cortes  by  the 
cities,  or  promoted  to  offices  of  trust  and  dignity  in 
the  government  of  the  community,  were  often,  as  will 
appear  from  transactions  which  I  shall  hereafter  relate, 
of  such  considerable  rank  in  the  kingdom  as  reflected 
lustre  on  their  constituents  and  on  the  stations  wherein 
they  were  placed. 

As  it  was  impossible  to  carry  on  a  continual  war 
against  the  Moors  without  some  other  military  force 
than  that  which  the  barons  were  obliged  to  bring  into 
the  field  in  consequence  of  the  feudal  tenures,  it  be- 
came necessary  to  have  some  troops,  particularly  a 
body  of  light  cavalry,  in  constant  pay.  It  was  one 
of  the  privileges  of  the  nobles  that  their  lands  were 
exempt  from  the  burden  of  taxes.  The  charge  of  sup- 
porting the  troops  requisite  for  the  public  safety  fell 
wholly  upon  the  cities ;  and  their  kings,  being 


150  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTION  in. 

frequently  to  apply  to  them  for  aid,  found  it  necessary 
to  gain  their  favour  by  concessions,  which  not  only 
extended  their  immunities,  but  added  to  their  wealth 
and  power. 

When  the  influence  of  all  these  circumstances,  pecu- 
liar to  Spain,  is  added  to  the  general  and  common 
causes  which  contributed  to  aggrandize  cities  in  other 
countries  of  Europe,  this  will  fully  account  for  the 
extensive  privileges  which  they  acquired,  as  well  as  for 
the  extraordinary  consideration  to  which  they  attained, 
in  all  the  Spanish  kingdoms.32 

By  these  exorbitant  privileges  of  the  nobility,  and 
this  unusual  power  of  the  cities,  in  Spain,  the  royal 
prerogative  was  hemmed  in  on  every  side  and  reduced 
within  very  narrow  bounds.  Sensible  of  this,  and  im- 
patient of  such  restraint,  several  monarchs  endeavoured, 
at  various  junctures  and  by  different  means,  to  enlarge 
their  own  jurisdiction.  Their  power,  however,  or  their 
abilities,  were  so  unequal  to  the  undertaking  that  their 
efforts  were  attended  with  little  success.  But  when 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  found  themselves  at  the  head 
of  the  united  kingdoms  of  Spain  and  delivered  from 
the  danger  and  interruption  of  domestic  wars,  they 
were  not  only  in  a  condition  to  resume,  but  were  able 
to  prosecute  with  advantage,  the  schemes  for  extending 
the  prerogative  which  their  ancestors  had  attempted  in 
vain.  Ferdinand's  profound  sagacity  in  concerting  his 
measures,  his  persevering  industry  in  conducting  them, 
and  his  uncommon  address  in  carrying  them  into  exe- 
cution, fitted  him  admirably  for  an  undertaking  which 
required  all  these  talents. 

As  the  overgrown  power  and  high  pretensions  of 
the  nobility  were  what  the  monarchs  of  Spain  felt 
most  sensibly  and  bore  with  the  greatest  impatience, 
the  great  object  of  Ferdinand's  policy  was  to  reduce 

33  Note  XXXV. 


SECTION  in.]  STATE  OF  EUROPE.  151 

these  within  more  moderate  bounds.  Under  various 
pretexts,  sometimes  by  violence,  more  frequently  in 
consequence  of  decrees  obtained  in  the  courts  of  law, 
he  wrested  from  the  barons  a  great  part  of  the  lands 
which  had  been  granted  to  them  by  the  inconsiderate 
bounty  of  former  monarchs,  particularly  during  the 
feeble  and  profuse  reign  of  his  predecessor,  Henry  IY. 
He  did  not  give  the  entire  conduct  of  affairs  to  persons 
of  noble  birth,  who  were  accustomed  to  occupy  every 
department  of  importance  in  peace  or  in  war,  as  if  it 
had  been  a  privilege  peculiar  to  their  order  to  be  em- 
ployed as  the  sole  counsellors  and  ministers  of  thr 
crown.  He  often  transacted  business  of  great  conse- 
quence without  their  intervention,  and  bestowed  many 
offices  of  power  and  trust  on  new  men,  devoted  to  his 
interest.33  He  introduced  a  degree  of  state  and  dig- 
nity into  his  court  which,  being  little  known  in  Spain 
while  it  remained  split  into  many  small  kingdoms, 
taught  the  nobles  to  approach  their  sovereign  with 
more  ceremony,  and  gradually  rendered  him  the  object 
of  greater  deference  and  respect. 

The  annexing  the  masterships  of  the  three  military 
orders  of  St.  Jago,  Calatrava,  and  Alcantara  to  the 
crown  was  another  expedient  by  which  Ferdinand 
greatly  augmented  the  revenue  and  power  of  the  kings 
of  Spain.  These  orders  were  instituted,  in  imitation 
of  those  of  the  Knights  Templars  and  of  St.  John  of 
Jerusalem,  on  purpose  to  wage  perpetual  war  with  the 
Mahometans,  and  to  protect  the  pilgrims  who  visited 
Compostella,  or  other  places  of  eminent  sanctity  in 
Spain,  The  zeal  and  superstition  of  the  ages  in  which 
they  were  founded  prompted  persons  of  every  rank  to 
bestow  such  liberal  donations  on  those  holy  warriors  that 
in  a  short  time  they  engrossed  a  considerable  share  in 
the  property  and  wealth  of  the  kingdom.  The  master- 

33  Zurita,  Anales  de  Arag.,  torn.  vi.  p.  22. 


152  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTION  in. 

ships  of  these  orders  came  to  be  stations  of  the  greatest 
power  and  opulence  to  which  a  Spanish  nobleman  could 
be  advanced.  These  high  dignities  were  in  the  dis- 
posal of  the  knights  of  the  order,  and  placed  the  per- 
sons on  whom  they  conferred  them  almost  on  a  level 
with  their  sovereign.34  Ferdinand,  unwilling  that  the 
nobility,  whom  he  considered  as  already  too  formidable, 
should  derive  such  additional  credit  and  influence  from 
possessing  the  government  of  these  wealthy  fraternities, 
was  solicitous  to  wrest  it  out  of  their  hands  and  to 
vest  it  in  the  crown.  His  measures  for  accomplishing 
this  were  wisely  planned  and  executed  with  vigour.35 
By  address,  by  promises,  and  by  threats,  he  prevailed 
on  the  knights  of  each  order  to  place  Isabella  and  him 
at  the  head  of  it.  Innocent  VIII.  and  Alexander  VI. 
gave  this  election  the  sanction  of  papal  authority;36 
and  subsequent  pontiffs  rendered  the  annexation  of 
these  masterships  to  the  crown  perpetual. 

While  Ferdinand  by  this  measure  diminished  the 
power  and  influence  of  the  nobility  and  added  new 
lustre  or  authority  to  the  crown,  he  was  taking  other 
important  steps  with  a  view  to  the  same  object.  The 
sovereign  jurisdiction  which  the  feudal  barons  exercised 
within  their  own  territories  was  the  pride  and  dis- 
tinction of  their  order.  To  have  invaded  openly  a 
privilege  which  they  prized  so  highly,  and  in  defence 
of  which  they  would  have  run  so  eagerly  to  arms, 
was  a  measure  too  daring  for  a  prince  of  Ferdinand's 
cautious  temper.  He  took  advantage,  however,  of  an 
opportunity  which  the  state  of  his  kingdoms  and  the 
spirit  of  his  people  presented  him,  in  order  to  under- 
mine what  he  durst  not  assault.  The  incessant  depre- 

34  Note  XXXVI.  a   Ferdinand,   et  Elizab.   gestarum 

''  Marian.,   Hist.,  lib.  xxv.  c.  0.  decades    ii.,    apud    Schot    Script 

36  Zurita,  Anales,  torn.  v.  p.  22.  Hispan.,  i.  860. 
— uElii  Anton.  Nebrissfjisis  Renun 


SECTION  in.]  STATE   OF  EUROPE.  15-". 

dations  of  the  Moors,  the  want  of  discipline  among 
the  troops  which  were  employed  to  oppose  them,  the 
frequent  civil  wars  between  the  crown  and  the  nobility, 
as  well  as  the  undiscerning  rage  with  which  the  barons 
carried  on  their  private  wars  with  each  other,  filled  all 
the  provinces  of  Spain  with  disorder.  Rapine,  outrage, 
and  murder  became  so  common  as  not  only  to  in- 
terrupt commerce,  but  in  a  great  measure  to  suspend 
all  intercourse  between -one  place  and  another.  That 
security  and  protection  which  men  expect  from  enter- 
ing into  civil  society  ceased  in  a  great  degree.  Internal 
order  and  police,  while  the  feudal  institutions  remained 
in  vigour,  were  so  little  objects  of  attention,  and  the 
administration  of  justice  was  so  extremely  feeble,  that 
it  would  have  been  vain  to  have  expected  relief  from 
the  established  laws  or  the  ordinary  judges.  But  the 
evil  became  so  intolerable,  and  the  inhabitants  of  cities, 
who  were  the  chief  sufferers,  grew  so  impatient  of  this 
anarchy,  that  self-preservation  forced  them  to  have 
recourse  to  an  extraordinary  remedy.  About  the  middle 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  cities  in  the  kingdom 
of  Aragon,  and,  after  their  example,  those  in  Castile, 
formed  themselves  into  an  association  distinguished  by 
the  name  of  the  holy  brotherhood.  They  exacted  a 
certain  contribution  from  each  of  the  associated  towns ; 
they  levied  a  considerable  body  of  troops,  in  order 
to  protect  travellers,  and  to  pursue  criminals ;  they 
appointed  judges,  who  opened  their  courts  in  various 
parts  of  the  kingdom.  Whoever  was  guilty  of  murder, 
robbery,  or  of  any  act  that  violated  the  public  peace, 
and  was  seized  by  the  troops  of  the  brotherhood,  was 
carried  before  judges  of  their  nomination,  who,  without 
paying  any  regard  to  the  exclusive  and  sovereign  juris- 
diction which  the  lord  of  the  place  might  claim,  tried 
and  condemned  the  criminals.  By  the  establishment 
of  this  fraternity  the  prompt  and  impartial  adminis- 


154  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTION  in. 

tration  of  justice  was  restored,  and,  together  with  it, 
internal  tranquillity  and  order  began  to  return.  The 
nobles  alone  murmured  at  this  salutary  institution. 
They  complained  of  it  as  an  encroachment  on  one  of 
their  most  valuable  privileges.  They  remonstrated 
against  it  in  a  high  tone,  and,  on  some  occasions, 
refused  to  grant  any  aid  to  the  crown  unless  it  were 
abolished.  Ferdinand,  however,  was  sensible  not  only 
of  the  good  effects  of  the  holy  brotherhood  with  respect 
to  the  police  of  his  kingdoms,  but  perceived  its  tendency 
to  abridge,  and  at  length  to  annihilate,  the  territorial 
jurisdiction  of  the  nobility.  He  countenanced  it  on 
every  occasion.  He  supported  it  with  the  whole  force 
of  royal  authority  ;  and,  besides  the  expedients  employed 
by  him  in  common  with  the  other  monarchs  of  Europe, 
he  availed  himself  of  this  institution,  which  was  peculiar 
to  his  kingdom,  in  order  to  limit  and  abolish  that 
independent  jurisdiction  of  the  nobility,  which  was  no 
less  inconsistent  with  the  authority  of  the  prince  than 
with  the  order  of  society.37 

But  though  Ferdinand  by  these  measures  considerably 
enlarged  the  boundaries  of  his  prerogative,  and  acquired 
a  degree  of  influence  and  power  far  beyond  what  any 
of  his  predecessors  had  enjoyed,  yet  the  limitations  of 
the  royal  authority,  as  well  as  the  barriers  against  its 
encroachments,  continued  to  be  many  and  strong.  The 
spirit  of  liberty  was  vigorous  among  the  people  of 
Spain ;  the  spirit  of  independence  was  high  among  the 
nobility ;  and  though  the  love  of  glory,  peculiar  to  the 
Spaniards  in  every  period  of  their  history,  prompted 
them  to  support  Ferdinand  with  zeal  in  his  foreign 
operations,  and  to  afford  him  such  aid  as  enabled  him 
not  only  to  undertake  but  to  execute  great  enterprises, 
he  reigned  over  his  subjects  with  a  jurisdiction  less 
extensive  than  that  of  any  of  the  great  monarchs  in 

37  Note  XXXVII. 


SECTION  in.]  STATE  OF  EUROPE.  155 

Europe.  It  will  appear  from  many  passages  in  the 
following  history  that  during  a  considerable  part  of  the 
reign  of  his  successor  Charles  V.  the  prerogative  of  the 
Spanish  crown  was  equally  circumscribed. 

The  ancient  government  and  laws  in  France  so  nearly 
resembled  those  of  the  other  feudal  kingdoms  that  such 
a  detail  with  respect  to  them  as  was  necessary,  in  order 
to  convey  some  idea  of  the  nature  and  effects  of  the 
peculiar  institutions  which  took  place  in  Spain,  would 
be  superfluous.  In  the  view  which  I  have  exhibited  of 
the  means  by  which  the  French  monarchs  acquired  such 
a  full  command  of  the  national  force  of  their  kingdom 
as  enabled  them  to  engage  in  extensive  schemes  of 
foreign  operation,  I  have  already  pointed  out  the  great 
steps  by  which  they  advanced  towards  a  more  ample 
possession  of  political  power  and  a  more  uncontrolled 
exercise  of  their  royal  prerogative.  All  that  now 
remains  is  to  take  notice  of  such  particulars  in  the 
constitution  of  France  as  serve  either  to  distinguish  it 
from  that  of  other  countries,  or  tend  to  throw  any  light 
on  the  transactions  of  that  period  to  which  the  following 
History  extends. 

Under  the  French  monarchs  of  the  first  race,  the 
royal  prerogative  was  very  inconsiderable.  The  general 
assemblies  of  the  nation,  which  met  annually  at  stated 
seasons,  extended  their  authority  to  every  department 
of  government.  The  power  of  electing  kings,  of  enact- 
ing laws,  of  redressing  grievances,  of  conferring  dona- 
tions on  the  prince,  of  passing  judgment  in  the  last 
resort,  with  respect  to  every  person  and  to  every  cause, 
resided  in  this  great  convention  of  the  nation.  Under 
the  second  race  of  kings,  notwithstanding  the  power 
and  splendour  which  the  conquests  of  Charlemagne 
added  to  the  crown,  the  general  assemblies  of  the  nation 
continued  to  possess  extensive  authority.  The  right  of 
determining  which  of  the  royal  family  should  be  placed 


L56  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTION  m. 

on  the  throno  was  vested  in  them.  The  princes,  ele- 
vated to  that  dignity  by  their  suffrage,  were  accustomed 
regularly  to  call  and  to  consult  them  with  respect  to 
every  affair  of  importance  to  the  state,  and  without 
their  consent  no  law  was  passed  and  no  new  tax  was 
levied. 

But  by  the  time  that  Hugh  Capet,  the  father  of  the  third 
race  of  kings,  took  possession  of  the  throne  of  France, 
such  changes  had  happened  in  the  political  state  of  the 
kingdom  as  considerably  affected  the  power  and  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  general  assembly  of  the  nation.  The  royal 
authority,  in  the  hands  of  the  degenerate  posterity  of 
Charlemagne,  had  dwindled  into  insignificance  and  con- 
tempt. Every  considerable  proprietor  of  land  had 
formed  his  territory  into  a  barony  almost  independent 
of  the  sovereign.  The  dukes  or  governors  of  provinces, 
the  counts  or  governors  of  towns  and  small  districts,  and 
the  great  officers  of  the  crown,  had  rendered  these  dig- 
nities, which  originally  were  granted  only  during  plea- 
sure or  for  life,  hereditary  in  their  families.  Each  of 
these  had  usurped  all  the  rights  which  hitherto  had  been 
deemed  the  distinctions  of  royalty,  particularly  the  pri- 
vileges of  dispensing  justice  within  their  own  domains, 
of  coining  money,  and  of  waging  war.  Every  district 
was  governed  by  local  customs,  acknowledged  a  distinct 
lord,  and  pursued  a  separate  interest.  The  formality  of 
doing  homage  to  their  sovereign  was  almost  the  only  act 
of  subjection  which  those  haughty  barons  would  per- 
form ;  and  that  bound  them  no  farther  than  they  were 
willing  to  acknowledge  its  obligation.38 

In  a  kingdom  broken  into  so  many  independent  baro- 
nies, hardly  any  common  principle  of  union  remained ; 
and  the  general  assembly,  in  its  deliberations,  could 
scarcely  consider  the  nation  as  forming  one  body,  or 
establish  common  regulations  to  be  of  equal  force  in 

38  Note  XXXVIII. 


BECTJON  in.]  STATE  OF  EUROPE.  157 

every  part.  Within  the  immediate  domains  of  the  crown 
the  king  might  publish  laws,  and  they  were  obeyed,  be- 
cause there  he  was  acknowledged  as  the  only  lord.  But 
if  he  had  aimed  at  rendering  these  laws  general,  that 
would  have  alarmed  the  barons  as  an  encroachment  upon 
the  independence  of  their  jurisdiction.  The  barons,  when 
met  in  the  great  national  convention,  avoided  with  no 
less  care  the  enacting  of  general  laws  to  be  observed  in 
every  part  of  the  kingdom,  because  the  execution  of 
them  must  have  been  vested  in  the  king,  and  would  have 
enlarged  that  paramount  power  which  was  the  object  of 
their  jealousy.  Thus,  under  the  descendants  of  Hugh 
Capet  the  states-general  (for  that  was  the  name  by  which 
the  supreme  assembly  of  the  French  nation  came  then  to 
be  distinguished)  lost  their  legislative  authority,  or  at 
least  entirely  relinquished  the  exercise  of  it.  From  that 
period  the  jurisdiction  of  the  states-general  extended  no 
farther  than  to  the  imposition  of  new  taxes,  the  determina- 
tion of  questions  with  respect  to  the  right  of  succession 
to  the  crown,  the  settling  of  the  regency  when  the  pre- 
ceding monarch  had  not  fixed  it  by  his  will,  and  the 
presenting  remonstrances  enumerating  the  grievances  of 
which  the  nation  wished  to  obtain  redress. 

As  during  several  centuries  the  monarchs  of  Europe 
seldom  demanded  extraordinary  subsidies  of  their  sub- 
jects, and  the  other  events  which  required  the  interposi- 
tion of  the  states  rarely  occurred,  their  meetings  in 
France  were  not  frequent.  They  were  summoned  occa- 
sionally by  their  kings,  when  compelled  by  their  wants 
or  by  their  fears  to  have  recourse  to  the  great  convention 
of  their  people ;  but  they  did  not,  like  the  diet  in  Ger- 
many, the  cortes  in  Spain,  or  the  parliament  in  England, 
form  an  essential  member  of  the  constitution,  the  regular 
exertion  of  whose  powers  was  requisite  to  give  vigour  and 
order  to  government. 

When  the  states  of  France  ceased  to  exercise  legisla- 


158  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTION  m. 

tive  authority,  the  kings  began  to  assume  it.  Thej 
ventured  at  first  on  acts  of  legislation  with  great  reserve, 
and  after  taking  every  precaution  that  could  prevent 
their  subjects  from  being  alarmed  at  the  exercise  of  a 
new  power.  They  did  not  at  once  issue  their  ordinances 
in  a  tone  of  authority  and  command.  They  treated  with 
their  subjects;  they  pointed  out  what  was  best,  and 
allured  them  to  comply  with  it.  By  degrees,  however, 
as  the  prerogative  of  the  crown  extended,  and  as  the 
supreme  jurisdiction  of  the  royal  courts  came  to  be 
established,  the  kings  of  France  assumed  more  openly 
the  style  and  authority  of  lawgivers  ;  and  before  the  be- 
ginning of  the  fifteenth  century  the  complete  legislative 
power  was  vested  in  the  crown.39 

Having  secured  this  important  acquisition,  the  steps 
which  led  to  the  right  of  imposing  taxes  were  rendered 
few  and  easy.  The  people,  accustomed  to  see  their  sove- 
reigns issue  ordinances,  by  their  sole  authority,  which 
regulated  points  of  the  greatest  consequence  with  respect 
to  the  property  of  their  subjects,  were  not  alarmed  when 
they  were  required  by  the  royal  edicts  to  contribute 
certain  sums  towards  supplying  the  exigencies  of  govern- 
ment and  carrying  forward  the  measures  of  the  nation. 
When  Charles  VII.  and  Louis  XI.  first  ventured  to  exer- 
cise this  new  power,  in  the  manner  in  which  I  have 
already  described,  the  gradual  increase  of  the  royal 
authority  had  so  imperceptibly  prepared  the  minds  of 
the  people  of  France  for  this  innovation  that  it  excited 
no  commotion  in  the  kingdom,  and  seemed  scarcely  to 
have  given  rise  to  any  murmur  or  complaint. 

When  the  kings  of  France  had  thus  engrossed  every 
power  which  can  be  exerted  in  government, — when  the 
right  of  making  laws,  of  levying  money,  of  keeping  an 
army  of  mercenaries  in  constant  pay,  of  declaring  war, 
and  of  concluding  peace,  centred  in  the  crown, — the 

39  Note  XXXIX. 


SECTION  in.]  STATE  OF  EUROPE.  159 

constitution  of  the  kingdom,  which  under  the  first  race 
of  kings  was  nearly  democratical,  which  under  the  second 
race  became  an  aristocracy,  terminated  under  the  third 
race  in  a  pure  monarchy.  Every  thing  that  tended  to 
preserve  the  appearance  or  revive  the  memory  of  the 
ancient  mixed  government  seems  from  that  period  to 
have  been  industriously  avoided.  During  the  long  and 
active  reign  of  Francis  L,  the  variety  as  well  as  extent 
of  whose  operations  obliged  him  to  lay  many  heavy  im- 
positions on  his  subjects,  the  states-general  of  France 
were  not  once  assembled,  nor  were  the  people  once 
allowed  to  exert  the  power  of  taxing  themselves,  which, 
according  to  the  original  ideas  of  feudal  government,  was 
a  right  essential  to  every  freeman.  . 

Two  things,  however,  remained  which  moderated  the 
exercise  of  the  regal  prerogative  and  restrained  it  within 
such  bounds  as  preserved  the  constitution  of  France  from 
degenerating  into  mere  despotism.  The  rights  and  pri- 
vileges claimed  by  the  nobility  must  be  considered  as 
one  barrier  against  the  absolute  dominion  of  the  crown. 
Though  the  nobles  of  France  had  lost  that  political 
power  which  was  vested  in  their  order  as  a  body,  they 
still  retained  the  personal  rights  and  pre-eminence  which 
they  derived  from  their  rank.  They  preserved  a  con- 
sciousness of  elevation  above  other  classes  of  citizens ;  ai 
exemption  from  burdens  to  which  persons  of  inferior 
condition  were  subject;  a  contempt  of  the  occupations  in 
which  they  were  engaged;  the  privilege  of  assuming 
ensigns  that  indicated  their  own  dignity ;  a  right  to  be 
treated  with  a  certain  degree  of  deference  during  peace : 
and  a  claim  to  various  distinctions  when  in  the  field. 
Many  of  these  pretensions  were  not  founded  on  the 
words  of  statutes,  or  derived  from  positive  laws :  they 
were  defined  and  ascertained  by  the  maxims  of  honour,  a 
title  more  delicate,  but  no  less  sacred.  These  rights, 
established  and  protected  by  a  principle  equally  vigilant 


1 60  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTION  in. 

in  guarding  and  intrepid  in  defending  them,  are  to  the 
sovereign  himself  objects  of  respect  and  veneration. 
Wherever  they  stand  in  its  way,  the  royal  prerogative  is 
bounded.  The  violence  of  a  despot  may  exterminate 
such  an  order  of  men ;  but  as  long  as  it  subsists,  and  its 
ideas  of  personal  distinction  remain  entire,  the  power  of 
the  prince  has  limits.40 

As  in  France  the  body  of  nobility  was  very  numerous, 
md  the  individuals  of  which  it  was  composed  retained  a 
high  sense  of  their  own  pre-eminence,  to  this  we  may 
ascribe  in  a  great  measure  the  mode  of  exercising  the 
royal  prerogative  which  peculiarly  distinguishes  the 
government  of  that  kingdom.  An  intermediate  order  was 
placed  between  the  monarch  and  his  other  subjects,  and 
in  every  act  of  authority  it  became  necessary  to  attend 
to  its  privileges,  and  not  only  to  guard  against  any  real 
violation  of  them,  but  to  avoid  any  suspicion  of  suppos- 
ing it  to  be  possible  that  they  might  be  violated.  Thus 
a  species  of  government  was  established  in  France  un- 
known in  the  ancient  world,  that  of  a  monarchy  in  which 
the  power  of  the  sovereign,  though  unconlined  by  any 
legal  or  constitutional  restraint,  has  certain  bounds  set  to 
it  by  the  ideas  which  one  class  of  his  subjects  entertain 
concerning  their  own  dignity. 

The  jurisdiction  of  the  parliaments  in  France,  particu- 
larly that  of  Paris,  was  the  other  barrier  which  served 
to  confine  the  exercise  of  the  royal  prerogative  within 
certain  limits.  The  parliament  of  Paris  was  originally 
the  court  of  the  kings  of  France,  to  which  they  com- 
mitted 1he  supreme  administration  of  justice  within  their 
own  domains,  as  well  as  the  power  of  deciding  with 
respect  to  all  cases  brought  before  it  by  appeals  from  the 
courts  of  the  barons.  When,  in  consequence  of  events 
and  regulations  which  have  been  mentioned  formerly,  the 

40  De  1'Esprit  des  Loix,  liv.   iL      History   of  Civil  Society,    part   L 
c.  4. — Dr.  Ferguson's  Essay  on  the      sect.  10. 


SECTION  in.]  STATE  OF  EUROPE. 

time  and  place  of  its  meeting  were  fixed, — when  not 
only  the  form  of  its  procedure,  but  the  principles  on 
which  it  decided,  were  rendered  regular  and  consistent, 
— when  every  cause  of  importance  was  finally  determined 
there,  and  when  the  people  became  accustomed  to  resort 
thither  as  to  the  supreme  temple  of  justice, — the  parlia- 
ment of  Paris  rose  to  high  estimation  in  the  kingdom, 
its  members  acquired  dignity,  and  its  decrees  were  sub- 
mitted to  with  deference.     NOT  was  this  the  only  source 
of  the  power  and  influence  which  the  parliament  obtained. 
The  kings  of  France,  when  they  first  began  to  assume 
the  legislative  power,  in  order  to  reconcile  the  minds  of 
their  people  to  this  new  exertion  of  prerogative,  pro- 
duced their  edicts  and  ordinances  in  the  parliament  of 
Paris,  that  they  might  be  approved  of  and  registered 
there  before  they  were  published  and  declared  to  be  of 
authority  in  the  kingdom.     During  the  intervals  between 
the  meetings  of  the  states-general  of  the  kingdom,  or 
during  those  reigns  in  which  the  states-general  were  not 
assembled,  the  monarchs  of  France  were  accustomed  to 
consult  the  parliament  of  Paris  with  respect  to  the  most 
arduous  affairs  of  government,  and  frequently  regulated 
their  conduct  by  its  advice,  in  declaring  war,  in  conclud- 
ing peace,  and  in  other  transactions  of  public  concern. 
Thus  there  was  erected  in  the  kingdom  a  tribunal  which 
became  the  great  depository  of  the  laws,  and,  by  the 
uniform  tenor  of  its  decrees,   established  principles  of 
justice  and  forms  of  proceeding  which  were  considered 
as   so   sacred  that   even   the   sovereign  power   of    the 
monarch  durst  not  venture  to  disregard  or  to  violate 
them.      The  members  of  this  illustrious  body,  though 
they  neither  possess  legislative    authority  nor   can   be 
considered  as  the   representatives  of   the  people,  have 
availed  themselves  of  the  reputation  and  influence  which 
they  had  acquired  among  their  countrymen,  in   order 
to  make  a  stand,  to  the  utmost  of  their  ability,  against 

vol..    1  K 


162  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTION  in, 

every  unprecedented  and  exorbitant  exertion  of  the 
prerogative.  In  every  period  of  the  French  history 
they  have  merited  the  praise  of  being  the  virtuous 
but  feeble  guardians  of  the  rights  and  privileges  of 
the  nation.41 

After  taking  this  view  of  the  political  state  of  France, 
I  proceed  to  consider  that  of  the  German  empire,  from 
which  Charles  V.  derived  his  title  of  highest  dignity. 
In  explaining  the  constitution  of  this  great  and  complex 
body  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  I  shall 
avoid  entering  into  such  a  detail  as  would  involve  my 
readers  in  that  inextricable  labyrinth  which  is  formed 
by  the  multiplicity  of  its  tribunals,  the  number  of  its 
members,  their  interfering  rights,  and  by  the  endless 
discussions  or  refinements  of  the  public  lawyers  of  Ger- 
many with  respect  to  all  these. 

The  empire  of  Charlemagne  was  a  structure  erected 
in  so  short  a  time  that  it  could  not  be  permanent. 
Under  his  immediate  successor  it  began  to  totter,  and 
soon  after  fell  to  pieces.  The  crown  of  Germany  was 
separated  from  that  of  France,  and  the  descendants  of 
Charlemagne  established  two  great  monarchies  so  situated 
as  to  give  rise  to  a  perpetual  rivalship  and  enmity  be- 
tween them.  But  the  princes  of  the  race  of  Charlemagne 
who  were  placed  on  the  imperial  throne  were  not  alto- 
gether so  degenerate  as  those  of  the  same  family  who 
reigned  in  France.  In  the  hands  of  the  former  the  royal 
authority  retained  some  vigour,  and  the  nobles  of  Ger- 
many, though  possessed  of  extensive  privileges  as  well 
as  ample  territories,  did  not  so  early  attain  independence. 
The  great  offices  of  the  crown  continued  to  be  at  the 
disposal  of  the  sovereign,  and  during  a  long  period  fiefs 
remained  in  their  original  state,  without  becoming  here- 
ditary and  perpetual  in  the  families  of  the  persons  to 
whom  they  had  been  granted. 

41  Note  XL. 


ii i. j  STATE  OF  EUROPE.  163 

At  length  the  German  branch  of  the  family  of  Charle- 
magne became  extinct,  and  his  feeble  descendants  who 
reigned  in  France  had  sunk  into  such  contempt  that  the 
Germans,  without  looking  towards  them,  exercised  the 
right  inherent  in  a  free  people,  and  in  the  general  assem- 
bly of  the  nation  elected  Conrad,  count  of  Franconia, 
emperor.  After  him  Henry  of  Saxony,  and  his  de- 
scendants, the  three  Othos,  were  placed,  in  succession, 
on  the  imperial  throne,  by  the  suffrages  of  their  coun- 
trymen. The  extensive  territories  of  the  Saxon  em- 
perors, their  eminent  abilities  and  enterprising  genius, 
not  only  added  new  vigour  to  the  imperial  dignity,  but 
raised  it  to  higher  power  and  pre-eminence.  Otho  the 
Great  marched  at  the  head  of  a  numerous  army  into 
Italy,  and,  after  the  example  of  Charlemagne,  gave  law 
to  that  country.  Every  power  there  recognised  his 
authority.  He  created  popes,  and  deposed  them,  by  his 
sovereign  mandate.  He  annexed  the  kingdom  of  Italy 
to  the  German  empire.  Elated  with  his  success,  he 
assumed  the  title  of  CaBsar  Augustus.42  A  prince  born 
in  the  heart  of  Germany  pretended  to  be  the  successor  of 
the  emperors  of  ancient  Eome,  and  claimed  a  right  to  the 
same  power  and  prerogative.  [952.] 

But  while  the  emperors,  by  means  of  these  new 
titles  and  new  dominions,  gradually  acquired  additional 
authority  and  splendour,  the  nobility  of  Germany  had 
gone  on  at  the  same  time  extending  their  privileges  and 
jurisdiction.  The  situation  of  affairs  was  favourable  to 
their  attempts.  The  vigour  which  Charlemagne  had 
given  to  government  quickly  relaxed.  The  incapacity 
of  some  of  his  successors  was  such  as  would  have  encou- 
raged vassals  less  enterprising  than  the  nobles  of  that 
age  to  have  claimed  new  rights  and  to  have  assumed 
new  powers'.  The  civil  wars  in  which  other  emperors 
were  engaged  obliged  them  to  pay  perpetual  court  to 

42  Annalista  Saxo,  etc.,  ap.  Struv.,  Corp.,  vol.  i  p.  246. 

vl 


164  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTION  ill. 

their  subjects,  on  whose  support  they  depended,  and  not 
only  to  connive  at  their  usurpations,  but  to  permit  and 
even  to  authorise  them.  Fiefs  gradually  became  here- 
ditary. They  were  transmitted  not  only  in  the  direct 
but  also  in  the  collateral  line.  The  investiture  of  them 
was  demanded  not  only  by  male  but  by  female  heirs. 
Every  baron  began  to  exercise  sovereign  jurisdiction 
within  his  own  domains ;  and  the  dukes  and  counts  of 
Germany  took  wide  steps  towards  rendering  their  terri- 
tories distinct  and  independent  states.43  The  Saxon 
emperors  observed  their  progress  and  were  aware  of  its 
tendency.  But,  as  they  could  not  hope  to  humble 
vassals  already  grown  too  potent,  unless  they  had  turned 
their  whole  force  as  well  as  attention  to  that  enterprise, 
and  as  they  were  extremely  intent  on  their  expeditions 
into  Italy,  which  they  could  not  undertake  without 
the  concurrence  of  their  nobles,  they  were  solicitous 
not  to  alarm  them  by  any  direct  attack  on  their  privileges 
and  jurisdictions.  They  aimed,  however,  at  under- 
mining their  power.  With  this  view,  they  inconsi- 
derately bestowed  additional  territories  and  accumulated 
new  honours  on  the  clergy,  in  hopes  that  this  order 
might  serve  as  a  counterpoise  to  that  of  the  nobility  in 
any  future  struggle.44 

The  unhappy  effects  of  this  fatal  error  in  policy  were 
quickly  felt.  Under  the  emperors  of  the  Franconian 
and  Swabian  lines,  whom  the  Germans,  by  their  volun- 
tary election,  placed  on  the  imperial  throne,  a  new  face 
of  things  appeared,  and  a  scene  was  exhibited  in  Ger- 
many which  astonished  all  Christendom  at  that  time, 
and  in  the  present  age  appears  almost  incredible.  The 
popes,  hitherto  dependent  on  the  emperors  and  indebted 
for  power  as  well  as  dignity  to  their  beneficence  and 
protection,  began  to  claim  a  superior  jurisdiction,  and, 

a  Pfeffel,  Abrejrf,  pp.  120,  152.  44  Pfeffel,  Abreg<$,  p.  154. 

— Lib.  Feudor.,  tit.  i. 


SECTION  in.]  STATE  OF  EUEOPE.  165 

in  virtue  of  authority  which  they  pretended  to  derive 
from  heaven,  tried,  condemned,  excommunicated,  and 
deposed  their  former  masters.  Nor  is  this  to  be  consi- 
dered merely  as  a  frantic  sally  of  passion  in  a  pontiff 
intoxicated  with  high  ideas  concerning  the  extent  of 
priestly  domination  and  the  plenitude  of  papal  authority. 
Gregory  VII.  was  able  as  well  as  daring.  His  presump- 
tion and  violence  were  accompanied  with  political  dis- 
cernment and  sagacity.  He  had  observed  that  the 
princes  and  nobles  of  Germany  had  acquired  such  con- 
siderable territories  and  such  extensive  jurisdiction  as 
rendered  them  not  only  formidable  to  the  emperors, 
but  disposed  them  to  favour  any  attempt  to  circumscribe 
their  power.  He  foresaw  that  the  ecclesiastics  of  Ger- 
many, raised  almost  to  a  level  with  its  princes,  were 
ready  to  support  any  person  who  would  stand  forth  as 
the  protector  of  their  privileges  and  independence.  With 
both  of  these  Gregory  negotiated,  and  had  secured  many 
devoted  adherents  among  them  before  he  ventured  to 
enter  the  lists  against  the  head  of  the  empire. 

He  began  his  rupture  with  Henry  IV.  upon  a  pretext 
that  was  popular  and  plausible.  He  complained  of  the 
venality  and  corruption  with  which  the  emperor  had 
granted  the  investiture  of  benefices  to  ecclesiastics. 
He  contended  that  this  right  belonged  to  him  as  the 
head  of  the  Church ;  he  required  Henry  to  confine  him- 
self within  the  bounds  of  his  civil  jurisdiction,  and  to 
abstain  for  the  future  from  such  sacrilegious  encroach- 
ments on  the  spiritual  dominion.  All  the  censures  of 
the  Church  were  denounced  against  Henry  because  he 
refused  to  relinquish  those  powers  which  his  predeces- 
sors had  uniformly  exercised.  The  most  considerable 
of  the  German  princes  and  ecclesiastics  were  excited 
to  take  arms  against  him.  His  mother,  his  wife,  his 
sons,  were  wrought  upon  to  disregard  al1.  the  ties  of 
blood  as  well  as  of  duty,  and  to  join  the  party  of  his 


166  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTION  m. 

enemies.45  Such  were  the  successful  arts  with  which  the 
court  of  Home  inflamed  the  superstitious  zeal  and  con- 
ducted the  factious  spirit  of  the  Germans  and  Italians, 
that  an  emperor  distinguished  not  only  for  many  virtues, 
but  possessed  of  considerable  talents,  was  at  length 
obliged  to  appear  as  a  supplicant  at  the  gate  of  the  castle 
in  which  the  pope  resided,  and  to  stand  there  three  days, 
barefooted,  in  the  depth  of  winter,  imploring  a  pardon, 
which  at  length  he  obtained  with  difficulty.46  [1077.] 

This  act  of  humiliation  degraded  the  imperial  dig- 
nity. Nor  was  the  depression  momentary  only.  The 
contest  between  Gregory  and  Henry  gave  rise  to  the 
two  great  factions  of  the  Guelfs  and  Ghibellines, — the 
former  of  which,  supporting  the  pretensions  of  the 
popes,  and  the  latter,  defending  the  rights  of  the  em- 
peror, kept  Germany  and  Italy  in  perpetual  agitation 
during  three  centuries.  A  regular  system  for  humbling 
the  emperors  and  circumscribing  their  power  was 
formed,  and  adhered  to  uniformly  throughout  that 
period.  The  popes,  the  free  states  in  Italy,  the  nobi- 
lity and  ecclesiastics  of  Germany,  were  all  interested 
in  its  success;  and,  notwithstanding  the  return  of  some 
short  intervals  of  vigour  under  the  administration  of  a 
few  able  emperors,  the  imperial  authority  continued 
to  decline.  During  the  anarchy  of  the  long  interreg- 
num subsequent  to  the  death  of  William  of  Holland, 
it  dwindled  down  almost  to  nothing.  Eodulph  of  Haps- 
burg,  the  founder  of  the  house  of  Austria,  and  who 
first  opened  the  way  to  its  future  grandeur,  was  at 
length  elected  emperor,  not  that  he  might  re-establish 
and  extend  the  imperial  authority,  but  because  his 
territories  and  influence  were  so  inconsiderable  as  to 
excite  no  jealousy  in  the  German  princes,  who  were 
-willing  to  preserve  the  forms  of  a  constitution  the  power 
and  vigour  of  which  they  had  destroyed.  Several  of  his 

"  Anna!  German.,  ap.  Struv.,  vol.  i.  p.  325.  48  Note  XLI, 


SECTION  in.]  STATE  OP  EUEOPE.  167 

successors  were  placed  on  the  imperial  throne  from  the 
same  motive,  and  almost  every  remaining  prerogative 
was  wrested  out  of  the  hands  of  feeble  princes  unable  to 
exercise  or  to  defend  them. 

During  this  period  of  turbulence  and  confusion  the 
constitution  of  the  Germanic  body  underwent  a  total 
change.  The  ancient  names  of  courts  and  magistrates, 
together  with  the  original  forms  and  appearance  of 
policy,  were  preserved;  but  such  new  privileges  and 
jurisdiction  were  assumed,  and  so  many  various  rights 
established,  that  the  same  species  of  government  no 
longer  subsisted.  The  princes,  the  great  nobility,  the 
dignified  ecclesiastics,  the  free  cities,  had  taken  advan- 
tage of  the  interregnum  which  I  have  mentioned  to 
establish  or  to  extend  their  usurpations.  They  claimed 
and  exercised  the  right  of  governing  their  respective 
territories  with  full  sovereignty.  They  acknowledged 
no  superior  with  respect  to  any  point  relative  to  the 
interior  administration  and  police  of  their  domains. 
They  enacted  laws,  imposed  taxes,  coined  money,  de- 
clared war,  concluded  peace,  and  exerted  every  preroga- 
tive peculiar  to  independent  states.  The  ideas  of  order 
and  political  union  which  had  originally  formed  the 
various  provinces  of  Germany  into  one  body  were  almost 
entirely  lost;  and  the  society  must  have  dissolved,  if 
the  forms  of  feudal  subordination  had  not  preserved  such 
an  appearance  of  connection  or  dependence  among  the 
various  members  of  the  community  as  preserved  it  from 
falling  to  pieces. 

This  bond  of  union,  however,  was  extremely  feeble ; 
and  hardly  any  principle  remained  in  the  German  con- 
stitution of  sufficient  force  to  maintain  public  order  or 
even  to  ascertain  personal  security.  From  the  accession 
of  Eodulph  of  Hapsburg  to  the  reign  of  Maximilian,  the 
immediate  predecessor  of  Charles  V.,  the  empire  felt 
every  calamity  which  a  state  must  endure  when  the 


A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTION  in. 

authority  of  government  is  so  much  relaxed  as  to  have 
lost  its  proper  degree  of  vigour.  The  causes  of  dissen- 
sion among  that  vast  number  of  members  which  composed 
the  Germanic  body  were  infinite  and  unavoidable. 
These  gave  rise  to  perpetual  private  wars,  which  were 
carried  on  with  all  the  violence  that  usually  accompanies 
resentment  when  unrestrained  by  superior  authority. 
Rapine,  outrage,  exactions,  became  universal.  Com- 
merce was  interrupted,  industry  suspended,  and  every 
part  of  Germany  resembled  a  country  which  an  enemy 
had  plundered  and  left  desolate.47  The  variety  of  ex- 
pedients employed  with  a  view  to  restore  order  and 
tranquillity  prove  that  the  grievances  occasioned  by 
this  state  of  anarchy  had  grown  intolerable.  Arbiters 
were  appointed  to  terminate  the  differences  among  the 
several  states.  The  cities  united  in  a  league  the  object 
of  which  was  to  check  the  rapine  and  extortions  of 
the  nobility.  The  nobility  formed  confederacies  on 
purpose  to  maintain  tranquillity  among  their  own  order. 
Germany  was  divided  into  several  circles,  in  each  of 
which  a  provincial  and  partial  jurisdiction  was  estab- 
lished, to  supply  the  place  of  a  public  and  common 
tribunal.48 

But  all  these  remedies  were  so  ineffectual  that  they 
served  only  to  demonstrate  the  violence  of  that  anarchy 
which  prevailed,  and  the  insufficiency  of  the  means 
employed  to  correct  it.  At  length  Maximilian  re-estab- 
lished public  order  in  the  empire,  by  instituting  the 
Imperial  Chamber,  a  tribunal  composed  of  judges  named 
partly  by  the  emperor,  partly  by  the  several  states,  and! 
vested  with  authority  to  decide  finally  concerning  all 
differences  among  the  members  of  the  Germanic  body. 
A  few  years  after,  by  giving  a  new  form  to  the  Aulie 

47  See  above,  pp.  42-44  and  Note      26,  p.  35,  no.  11. 
XXI. — Datt.,    de     Pace     Publica          4S  Datt,  passim. — Stray.,    Corp 
Imper.,  p.   25,  no.    53,  p.    28,  no.       Hist.,  i.  510,  etc. 


SECTION  in.]  STATE   OF  EUROPE.  169 

Council  which  takes  cognizance  of  all  feudal  causes  and 
such  as  belong  to  the  emperor's  immediate  jurisdiction, 
he  restored  some  degree  of  vigour  to  the  imperial  au- 
thority. [1512.] 

But,  notwithstanding  the  salutary  effects  of  these 
regulations  and  improvements,  the  political  constitution 
of  the  German  empire,  at  the  commencement  of  the 
period  of  which  I  propose  to  write  the  history,  was  of  a 
species  so  peculiar  as  not  to  resemble  perfectly  any 
form  of  government  known  either  in  the  ancient  or 
modern  world.  It  was  a  complex  body,  formed  by  the 
association  of  several  states,  each  of  which  possessed 
sovereign  and  independent  jurisdiction  within  its  own 
territories.  Of  all  the  members  which  composed  this 
united  body  the  emperor  was  the  head.  In  his  name 
all  decrees  and  regulations  with  respect  to  points  of 
common  concern  were  issued,  and  to  him  the  power  of 
carrying  them  into  execution  was  committed.  But  this 
appearance  of  monarchical  power  in  the  emperor  was 
more  than  counterbalanced  by  the  influence  of  the 
princes  and  states  of  the  empire  in  every  act  of  admi- 
nistration. No  law  extending  to  the  whole  body  could 
pass,  no  resolution  that  affected  the  general  interest 
could  be  taken,  without  the  approbation  of  the  diet  of 
the  empire.  In  this  assembly  every  sovereign  prince 
and  state  of  the  Germanic  body  had  a  right  to  be  pre- 
sent, to  deliberate,  and  to  vote.  The  decrees,  or  recesses, 
of  the  diet  were  the  laws  of  the  empire,  which  the 
emperor  was  bound  to  ratify  and  enforce. 

Under  this  aspect,  the  constitution  of  the  empire 
appears  a  regular  confederacy,  similar  to  the  Achaean 
league  in  ancient  Greece,  or  to  that  of  the  United 
Provinces,  and  of  the  Swiss  Cantons,  in  modern  times. 
But,  if  viewed  in  another  light,  striking  peculiarities  in 
its  political  state  present  themselves.  The  Germanic 
body  was  not  formed  by  the  union  of  members  altogether 


170  A.  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTIOH  in. 

distinct  and  independent.  All  the  princes  and  states 
joined  in  this  association  were  originally  subject  to 
the  emperors  and  acknowledged  them  as  sovereigns. 
Besides  this,  they  originally  held  their  lands  as  impe- 
rial fiefs,  and  in  consequence  of  this  tenure  owed  the 
emperor  all  those  services  which  feudal  vassals  are 
bound  to  perform  to  their  liege  lord.  But  though  this 
political  subjection  was  entirely  at  an  end,  and  the  in- 
fluence of  the  feudal  relation  much  diminished,  the 
ancient  forms  and  institutions,  introduced  while  the 
c-mperors  governed  Germany  with  authority  not  inferior 
to  that  which  the  other  monarchs  of  Europe  possessed, 
still  remained.  Thus  an  opposition  was  established 
between  the  genius  of  the  government  and  the  forms  of 
administration  in  the  German  empire.  The  former  con- 
sidered the  emperor  only  as  the  head  of  a  confederacy, 
the  members  of  which,  by  their  voluntary  choice,  have 
raised  him  to  that  dignity ;  the  latter  seemed  to  imply 
that  he  is  really  invested  with  sovereign  power.  By 
this  circumstance  such  principles  of  hostility  and  dis- 
cord were  interwoven  into  the  frame  of  the  Germanic 
body  as  affected  each  of  its  members,  rendering  their 
interior  union  incomplete  and  their  external  efforts 
feeble  and  irregular.  The  pernicious  influence  of  this 
defect,  inherent  in  the  constitution  of  the  empire,  is  so 
considerable  that  without  attending  to  it  we  cannot  fully 
comprehend  many  transactions  in  the  reign  of  Charles  V. 
or  form  just  ideas  concerning  the  genius  of  the  German 
government. 

The  emperors  of  Germany  at  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century  were  distinguished  by  the  most 
pompous  titles,  and  by  such  ensigns  of  dignity  as 
intimated  their  authority  to  be  superior  to  that  of  all 
other  monarchs.  The  greatest  princes  of  the  empire 
attended  and  served  them,  on  some  occasions,  as  the 
officers  of  their  household.  They  exercised  prerogatives 


SECTION  in.]  STATE  OF  EUROPE.  171 

which  no  other  sovereign  ever  claimed.  They  retained 
pretensions  to  all  the  extensive  powers  which  their 
predecessors  had  enjoyed  in  any  former  age.  But,  at 
the  same  time,  instead  of  possessing  that  ample  domain 
which  had  belonged  to  the  ancient  emperors  of  Ger- 
many and  which  stretched  from  Basil  to  Cologne,  along 
both  banks  of  the  Rhine,49  they  were  stripped  of  all 
territorial  property,  and  had  not  a  single  city,  a  single 
castle,  a  single  foot  of  land,  that  belonged  to  them  as 
heads  of  the  empire.  As  their  domain  was  alienated, 
their  stated  revenues  were  reduced  almost  to  nothing ; 
and  the  extraordinary  aids  which  on  a  few  occasions 
they  obtained  were  granted  sparingly  and  paid  with 
reluctance.  The  princes  and  states  of  the  empire, 
though  they  seemed  to  recognise  the  imperial  authority, 
were  subjects  only  in  name,  each  of  them  possessing  a 
complete  municipal  jurisdiction  within  the  precincts  of 
his  own  territories. 

From  this  ill- compacted  frame  of  government  effects 
that  were  unavoidable  resulted.  The  emperors,  dazzled 
with  the  splendour  of  their  titles  and  the  external  signs 
of  vast  authority,  were  apt  to  imagine  themselves  to  be 
the  real  sovereigns  of  Germany,  and  were  led  to  aim 
continually  at  recovering  the  exercise  of  those  powers 
which  the  forms  of  the  constitution  seemed  to  vest  in 
them,  and  which  their  predecessors,  Charlemagne  and 
the  Othos,  had  actually  enjoyed.  The  princes  and 
states,  aware  of  the  nature  as  well  as  the  extent  of 
these  pretensions,  were  perpetually  on  their  guard  in 
order  to  watch  all  the  motions  of  the  imperial  court 
and  to  circumscribe  its  power  within  limits  still  more 
narrow.  The  emperors,  in  support  of  their  claims, 
appealed  to  ancient  forms  and  institutions  which  the 
states  held  to  be  obsolete.  The  states  founded  their 

49  Pfeffel,  Abrdg^,  etc.,  p.  241. 


A    VIEW  OF   THE  [SECTION  in. 

rights  on  recent  practice  and  modern  privileges,  which 
the  emperors  considered  as  usurpations. 

This  jealousy  of  the  imperial  authority,  together  with 
the  opposition  between  it  and  the  rights  of  the  states, 
increased  considerably  from  the  time  that  the  emperors 
were  elected,  not  by  the  collective  body  of  German 
nobles,  but  by  a  few  princes  of  chief  dignity.  During 
a  long  period  all  the  members  of  the  Germanic  body 
had  a  right  to  assemble  and  to  make  choice  of  the 
person  whom  they  appointed  to  be  their  head.  But 
amidst  the  violence  and  anarchy  which  prevailed  for 
several  centuries  in  the  empire,  seven  princes  who 
possessed  the  most  extensive  territories,  and  who  had 
obtained  an  hereditary  title  to  the  great  offices  of  the 
state,  acquired  the  exclusive  privilege  of  nominating 
the  emperor.  This  right  was  confirmed  to  them  by 
the  Golden  Bull ;  the  mode  of  exercising  it  was  ascer- 
tained, and  they  were  dignified  with  the  appellation 
of  electors.  The  nobility  and  free  cities,  being  thus 
stripped  of  a  privilege  which  they  had  once  enjoyed, 
were  less  connected  with  a  prince  towards  whose  eleva- 
tion they  had  not  contributed  by  their  suffrages,  and 
came  to  be  more  apprehensive  of  his  authority.  The 
electors,  by  their  extensive  power  and  the  distinguish- 
ing privileges  which  they  possessed,  became  formidable 
to  the  emperors  with  whom  they  were  placed  almost  on 
a  level  in  several  acts  of  jurisdiction.  Thus  the  intro- 
duction of  the  electoral  college  into  the  empire,  and 
the  authority  which  it  acquired,  instead  of  diminishing, 
contributed  to  strengthen,  the  principles  of  hostility  and 
discord  in  the  Germanic  constitution. 

These  were  farther  augmented  by  the  various  and 
repugnant  forms  of  civil  policy  in  the  several  states 
which  composed  the  Germanic  body.  It  is  no  easy 
matter  to  render  the  union  of  independent  states 
perfect  and  entire,  even  when  the  genius  and  forms  of 


BBCTW-K  m.]  STATE  OF  EUEOPE.  173 

their  respective  governments  happen  to  be  altogether 
similar.  But  in  the  German  empire,  which  was  a 
confederacy  of  princes,  of  ecclesiastics,  and  of  free 
cities,  it  was  impossible  that  they  conld  incorporate 
thoroughly.  The  free  cities  were  small  republics,  in 
which  the  maxims  and  spirit  peculiar  to  that  species 
of  government  prevailed.  The  princes  and  nobles,  to 
whom  supreme  jurisdiction  belonged,  possessed  a  sort 
of  monarchical  power  within  their  own  territories,  and 
the  forms  of  their  interior  administration  nearly  resem- 
bled those  of  the  great  feudal  kingdoms.  The  interests, 
the  ideas,  the  objects  of  states  so  differently  constituted 
cannot  be  the  same.  Nor  could  their  common  delibera- 
tions be  carried  on  with  the  same  spirit,  while  the  love 
of  liberty  and  attention  to  commerce  were  the  reigning 
principles  in  the  cities,  while  the  desire  of  power  and 
ardour  for  military  glory  were  the  governing  passions  of 
the  princes  and  nobility. 

The  secular  and  ecclesiastical  members  of  the  empire 
were  as  little  fitted  for  union  as  the  free  cities  and  the 
nobility.  Considerable  territories  had  been  granted  to 
several  of  the  German  bishoprics  and  abbeys,  and  some 
of  the  highest  offices  in  the  empire,  having  been  annexed 
to  them  inalienably,  were  held  by  the  ecclesiastics  raised 
to  these  dignities.  The  younger  sons  of  noblemen  of 
the  second  order,  who  had  devoted  themselves  to  the 
Church,  were  commonly  promoted  to  these  stations  of 
eminence  and  power ;  and  it  was  no  small  mortification 
to  the  princes  and  great  nobility  to  see  persons  raised 
from  an  inferior  rank  to  the  same  level  with  them- 
selves, or  even  exalted  to  superior  dignity.  The  educa- 
tion of  these  churchmen,  the  genius  of  their  profession, 
and  their  connection  with  the  court  of  Eome,  ren- 
dered their  character  as  well  as  their  interest  different 
from  those  of  the  other  members  of  the  Germanic 
body  with  whom  they  were  called  to  act  in  concert. 


174  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SKCTION  m. 

Thus  another  source  of  jealousy  and  variance  was 
opened  which  ought  not  to  be  overlook ed  when  we  are 
searching  into  the  nature  of  the  German  constitution. 

To  all  these  causes  of  dissension  may  be  added  one 
more,  arising  from  the  "unequal  distribution  of  power 
and  wealth  among  the  states  of  the  empire.  The 
electors,  and  other  nobles  of  the  highest  rank,  not  only 
possessed  sovereign  jurisdiction,  but  governed  such 
extensive,  populous,  and  rich  countries  as  rendered 
them  great  princes.  Many  of  the  other  members, 
though  they  enjoyed  all  the  rights  of  sovereignty, 
ruled  over  such  petty  domains  that  their  real  power 
bore  no  proportion  to  this  high  prerogative.  A  well- 
compacted  and  vigorous  confederacy  could  not  be 
formed  of  such  dissimilar  states.  The  weaker  were 
jealous,  timid,  and  unable  either  to  assert  or  to  defend 
their  just  privileges.  The  more  powerful  were  apt  to 
assume  and  to  become  oppressive.  The  electors  and 
emperors,  by  turns,  endeavoured  to  extend  their  own 
authority  by  encroaching  on  those  feeble  members  of 
the  Germanic  body,  who  sometimes  defended  their 
rights  with  much  spirit,  but  more  frequently,  being 
overawed  or  corrupted,  they  tamely  surrendered  their 
privileges,  or  meanly  favoured  the  designs  formed 
against  them.50 

After  contemplating  all  these  principles  of  disunion 
and  opposition  in  the  constitution  of  the  German  em- 
pire, it  will  be  easy  to  account  for  the  want  of  concord 
and  uniformity  conspicuous  in  its  councils  and  proceed- 
ings. That  slow,  dilatory,  distrustful,  and  irresolute 
spirit  which  characterises  all  its  deliberations  will  ap- 
pear natural  in  a  body  the  junction  of  whose  members 
was  so  incomplete,  the  different  parts  of  which  were] 
held  together  by  such  feeble  ties  and  set  at  variance  by 
such  powerful  motives.  But  the  empire  of  Germany, 

40  Note  XLIL 


SECTION  in.]  STATE   OF   EUKOPE  175 

nevertheless,  comprehended  countries  of  such  great 
extent,  and  was  inhabited  by  such  a  martial  and 
hardy  race  of  men,  that  when  the  abilities  of  an  em- 
peror, or  zeal  for  any  common  cause,  could  rouse  this 
unwieldy  body  to  put  forth  its  strength,  it  acted  with 
almost  irresistible  force.  In  the  following  history  we 
.-.hall  find  that  as  the  measures  on  which  Charles  Y.  was 
most  intent  were  often  thwarted  or  rendered  abortive 
by  the  spirit  of  jealousy  and  division  peculiar  to  the 
Germanic  constitution,  so  it  was  by  the  influence  which 
he  acquired  over  the  princes  of  the  empire,  and  by 
engaging  them  to  co-operate  with  him,  that  he  was 
enabled  to  make  some  of  the  greatest  efforts  which 
distinguish  his  reign. 

The  Turkish  history  is  so  blended,  during  the  reign 
of  Charles  Y.,  with  that  of  the  great  nations  in  Europe, 
and  the  Ottoman  Porte  interposed  so  often,  and  with 
such  decisive  influence,  in  the  wars  and  negotiations  of 
the  Christian  princes,  that  some  previous  account  of  the 
state  of  government  in  that  great  empire  is  no  less  neces- 
sary for  the  information  of  my  readers  than  those  views 
of  the  constitution  of  other  kingdoms  which  I  have 
already  exhibited  to  them. 

It  has  been  the  fate  of  the  southern  and  more  fertile 
parts  of  Asia,  at  different  periods,  to  be  conquered  by 
that  warlike  and  hardy  race  of  men  who  inhabit  the 
vast  country  known  to  the  ancients  by  the  name  of 
Scythia  and  among  the  moderns  by  that  of  Tartary. 
One  tribe  of  these  people,  called  Turks  or  Turcomans, 
extended  its  conquests,  under  various  leaders,  and 
during  several  centuries,  from  the  shore  of  the  Caspian 
Sea  to  the  Straits  of  the  Dardanelles.  Towards  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  these  formidable  con- 
querors took  Constantinople  by  storm  and  established 
the  seat  of  their  government  in  that  imperial  city. 
Greece,  Moldavia,  Wallachia,  and  the  other  provinces 


176  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTION  ra. 

of  the  ancient  kingdoms  of  Thrace  and  Macedonia, 
together  with  part  of  Hungary,  were  subjected  to  their 
power. 

But  though  the  seat  of  the  Turkish  government  was 
fixed  in  Europe,  and  the  sultans  obtained  possession  of 
such  extensive  dominions  in  that  quarter  of  the  globe, 
the  genius  of  their  policy  continued  to  be  purely  Asiatic, 
and  may  be  properly  termed  a  despotism,  in  contradis- 
tinction to  those  monarchical  and  republican  forms  of 
government  which  we  have  been  hitherto  contemplating. 
The  supreme  power  was  vested  in  sultans  of  the  Ottoman 
race,  that  blood  being  deemed  so  sacred  that  no  other 
was  thought  worthy  of  the  throne.     From  this  elevation 
these  sovereigns  could  look  down  and  behold  all  their 
subjects  reduced  to  the  same  level  before  them.     The 
maxims  of  Turkish  policy  do  not  authorise  any  of  those 
institutions  which  in  other  countries  limit  the  exercise 
or   moderate  the    rigour  of   monarchical  power:    they 
admit  neither  of  any  great  court  with  constitutional  and 
permanent  jurisdiction   to   interpose   both   in   enacting 
laws  and  in  superintending  the  execution  of  them,  nor 
of  a  body  of  hereditary  nobles  whose  sense  of  their  own 
pre-eminence,  whose   consciousness  of   what   is  due   to 
their  rank  and  character,  whose  jealousy  of  their  privi- 
leges,   circumscribe   the   authority  of   the   prince,    and 
serve  not  only  as  a  barrier  against  the  excesses  of  his 
caprice,  but    stand   as    an   intermediate  order   between 
him  and  the  people.     Under  the   Turkish   government 
the   political  condition  of   every  subject  is  equal.     To 
be  employed   in  the  service  of   the  sultan  is  the  only 
circumstance  that  confers   distinction.      Even  this  dis- 
tinction is  rather  official  than  personal,  and  so  closely 
annexed  to  the  station  in  which  any  individual  serves 
that    it   is  scarcely   communicated   to    the   persons    of 
those  who  are   placed   in  them.      The  highest  dignity 
in  the  empire  does  not  give  any  rank  or  pre-eminence 


SEctioii  Hi.]  STATE  OF  EUROPE.  177 

to  the  family  of  him  who  enjoys  it.  As  every  man 
before  he  is  raised  to  any  station  of  authority  must  go 
through  the  preparatory  discipline  of  a  long  and  ser- 
vile obedience,51  the  moment  he  is  deprived  of  power 
he  and  his  posterity  return  to  the  same  condition  with 
other  subjects  and  sink  back  into  obscurity.  It  is  the 
distinguishing  and  odious  characteristic  of  Eastern 
despotism  that  it  annihilates  all  other  ranks  of  men 
in  order  to  exalt  the  monarch ;  that  it  leaves  nothing 
to  the  former,  while  it  gives  everything  to  the  latter; 
that  it  endeavours  to  fix  in  the  minds  of  those  who  are 
subject  to  it  the  idea  of  no  relation  between  men  but 
that  of  a  master  and  of  a  slave,  the  former  destined  to 
command  and  to  punish,  the  latter  formed  to  tremble 
and  obey.58 

But,  as  there  are  circumstances  which  frequently 
obstruct  or  defeat  the  salutary  effects  of  the  best- 
regulated  governments,  there  are  others  which  con- 
tribute to  mitigate  the  evils  of  the  most  defective 
forms  of  policy.  There  can,  indeed,  be  no  constitu- 
tional restraints  upon  the  will  of  a  prince  in  a  despotic 
government;  but  there  may  be  such  as  are  accidental. 
Absolute  as  the  Turkish  sultans  are,  they  feel  themselves 
circumscribed  both  by  religion,  the  principle  on  which 
their  authority  is  founded,53  and  by  the  army,  the  instru- 
ment which  they  must  employ  in  order  to  maintain  it. 
Wherever  religion  interposes,  the  will  of  the  sovereign 
must  submit  to  its  decrees.  When  the  Koran  hath 
prescribed  any  religious  rite,  hath  enjoined  any  moral 
duty,  or  hath  confirmed  by  its  sanction  any  political 
maxim,  the  command  of  the  sultan  cannot  overturn 
that  which  a  higher  authority  hath  established.  The 
chief  restriction,  however,  on  the  will  of  the  sultans  is> 
imposed  by  the  military  power.  An  armed  force  must 

41  State  of  the  Turkish  Empire,          "  Note  XLIII. 
by  Ryuuut,  p.  25.  M  Rycant,  p.  8. 


178  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTION  ill. 

surround  the  throne  of  every  despot,  to  maintain  his 
authority  and  to  execute  his  commands.  As  the  Turks 
extended  their  empire  over  nations  which  they  did 
not  exterminate,  hut  reduced  to  subjection,  they  found 
it  necessary  to  render  their  military  establishment  nu- 
merous and  formidable.  Amruth,  their  third  sultan, 
in  order  to  form  a  body  of  troops  devoted  to  his 
will,  that  might  serve  as  the  immediate  guards  of  his 
person  and  dignity,  commanded  his  officers  to  seize 
annually,  as  the  imperial  property,  the  fifth  part  of  the 
youth  taken  in  war.  These,  after  being  instructed  in 
the  Mahometan  religion,  inured  to  obedience  by  severe 
discipline,  and  trained  to  warlike  exercises,  were  formed 
into  a  body  distinguished  by  the  name  of  janizaries,  or 
new  soldiers.  Every  sentiment  which  enthusiasm  can 
inspire,  every  mark  of  distinction  that  the  favour  of  the 
prince  could  confer,  were  employed  in  order  to  animate 
this  body  with  martial  ardour  and  with  a  consciousness 
of  its  own  pre-eminence.54  The  janizaries  soon  became 
the  chief  strength  and  pride  of  the  Ottoman  armies,  and, 
by  their  number  as  well  as  reputation,  were  distin- 
guished above  all  the  troops  whose  duty  it  was  to  attend 
on  the  person  of  the  sultan.55  [1362.] 

Thus,  as  the  supreme  power  in  every  society  is  pos- 
sessed by  those  who  have  arms  in  their  hands,  this  for- 
midable body  of  soldiers,  destined  to  be  the  instruments 
of  enlarging  the  sultan's  authority,  acquired  at  the 
same  time  the  means  of  controlling  it.  The  janizaries 
in  Constantinople,  like  the  praetorian  bands  in  ancient 
Eome,  quickly  perceived  all  the  advantages  which  they 
derived  from  being  stationed  in  the  capital,  from  their 
union  under  one  standard,  and  from  being  masters  of 
the  person  of  the  prince.  The  sultans  became  no 
les»  sensible  of  their  influence  and  importance.  The 

44  Prince   Cantemir's    History  of          65  Note  XLIV. 
the  Othmaii  Empire,  p.  87. 


SECTION  ni]  STATE  OF  EUROPE.  170 

capicuty,  or  soldiery  of  the  Porte,  was  the  only  power  in 
the  empire  that  a  sultan  or  his  vizier  had  reason  to 
dread.  To  preserve  the  fidelity  and  attachment  of  the 
janizaries  was  the  great  art  of  government  and  the  prin- 
cipal object  of  attention  in  the  policy  of  the  Ottoman 
court.  Under  a  monarch  whose  abilities  and  vigour  of 
mind  fit  him  for  command,  they  are  obsequious  instru- 
ments,— execute  whatever  he  enjoins,  and  render  his 
power  irresistible.  Under  feeble  princes,  or  such  as  are 
unfortunate,  they  become  turbulent  and  mutinous,— 
assume  the  tone  of  masters,  degrade  and  exalt  sultans 
at  pleasure,  and  teach  those  to  tremble,  on  whose  nod, 
at  other  times,  life  and  death  depend. 

From  Mahomet  II.,  who  took  Constantinople,  to 
Solyman  the  Magnificent,  who  began  his  reign  a  few 
months  after  Charles  V.  was  placed  on  the  imperial 
throne  of  Germany,  a  succession  of  illustrious  princes 
ruled  over  the  Turkish  empire.  By  their  great  abili- 
ties they  kept  their  subjects  of  every  order,  military 
as  well  as  civil,  submissive  to  government,  and  had 
the  absolute  command  of  whatever  force  their  vast 
empire  was  able  to  exert.  Solyman,  in  particular, 
who  is  known  to  the  Christians  chiefly  as  a  con- 
queror, but  is  celebrated  in  the  Turkish  annals  as 
the  great  lawgiver  who  established  order  and  police  in 
their  empire,  governed  during  his  long  reign  with  no 
less  authority  than  wisdom.  He  divided  his  dominions 
into  several  districts ;  he  appointed  the  number  of  sol- 
diers which  each  should  furnish;  he  appropriated  a 
certain  proportion  of  the  land  in  every  province  for 
their  maintenance ;  he  regulated  with  a  minute  accu- 
racy every  thing  relative  to  their  discipline,  their  arms, 
and  the  nature  of  their  service.  He  put  the  finances  of 
the  empire  into  an  orderly  train  of  administration ;  and, 
though  the  taxes  in  the  Turkish  dominions,  as  well  as  in 
the  other  despotic  monarchies  of  the  East,  are  far  from 

N  2 


180  A  VIEW  OF  THE  [SECTION  in. 

being  considerable,  he  supplied  that  defect  by  an  atten- 
tive and  severe  economy. 

Nor  was  it  only  under  such  sultans  as  Solyman, 
whose  talents  were  no  less  adapted  to  preserve  internal 
order  than  to  conduct  the  operations  of  war,  that  the 
Turkish  empire  engaged  with  advantage  in  its  contests 
with  the  Christian  states.  The  long  succession  of 
able  princes  which  I  have  mentioned  had  given  such 
vigour  and  firmness  to  the  Ottoman  government  that  it 
seems  to  have  attained  during  the  sixteenth  century 
the  highest  degree  of  perfection  of  which  its  constitu- 
tion was  capable.  Whereas  the  great  monarchies  in 
Christendom  were  still  far  from  that  state  which  could 
enable  them  to  act  with  a  full  exertion  of  their  force. 
Besides  this,  the  Turkish  troops  in  that  age  possessed 
every  advantage  which  arises  from  superiority  in  mili- 
tary discipline.  At  the  time  when  Solyman  began  his 
reign,  the  janizaries  had  been  embodied  near  a  cen- 
tury and  a  half,  and  during  that  long  period  the 
severity  of  their  military  discipline  had  in  no  degree 
relaxed.  The  other  soldiers,  drawn  from  the  provinces 
of  the  empire,  had  been  kept  almost  continually  under 
arms,  in  the  various  wars  which  the  sultans  had  carried 
on,  with  hardly  an  interval  of  peace.  Against  troops 
thus  trained  and  accustomed  to  service  the  forces  of 
the  Christian  powers  took  the  field  with  great  disad- 
vantage. The  most  intelligent  as  well  as  impartial 
authors  of  the  sixteenth  century  acknowledge  and 
lament  the  superior  attainments  of  the  Turks  in  the 
military  art.56  The  success  which  almost  uniformly 
attended  their  arms,  in  all  their  wars,  demonstrates  the 
justness  of  this  observation.  The  Christian  armies 
did  not  acquire  that  superiority  over  the  Turks  which 
they  now  possess  until  the  long  establishment  of  stand- 

M  Note  XLV. 


SECTION  in.]  STATE  OF  EUROPE.  181 

ing  forces  had  improved  military  discipline  among  the 
former,  and  until  various  causes  and  events,  which  it 
is  not  in  my  province  to  explain,  had  corrupted  or 
abolished  their  ancient  warlike  institutions  among  the 
latter. 


PROOFS   AND  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


NOTE  I. — Sect  I.  p.  6. 

THE  consternation  of  the  Britons,  when  invaded  by  the  Picts  and  Cale- 
donians, after  the  Roman  legions  were  called  out  of  the  island,  may  give 
some  idea  of  the  degree  of  debasement  to  which  the  human  mind  was 
reduced  by  long  servitude  under  the  Romans.  In  their  supplicatory  letter 
to  Aetius,  which  they  call  the  Groans  of  Britain,  "  We  know  not  (say 
they)  which  way  to  turn  us.  The  barbarians  drive  us  to  the  sea,  and  the 
sea  forces  us  back  on  the  barbarians  ;  between  which  we  have  only  the 
choice  of  two  deaths,  either  to  be  swallowed  up  by  the  waves,  or  to  be 
slain  by  the  sword."  (Histor.  Gildas,  ap.  Gale,  Hist.  Britan.  Script.,  p.  6.) 
One  can  hardly  believe  this  dastardly  race  to  be  descendants  of  that  gallant 
people  who  repulsed  Caesar  and  defended  their  liberty  so  long  against  the 
Roman  arms. 

NOTE  II. — Sect.  I.  p.  6. 

The  barbarous  nations  were  not  only  illiterate,  but  regarded  literature 
with  contempt.  They  found  the  inhabitants  of  all  the  provinces  of  the 
i-mpire  sunk  in  effeminacy  and  averse  to  war.  Such  a  character  was  the 
object  of  scorn  to  a  high-spirited  and  gallant  race  of  men.  "  When  we 
would  brand  an  enemy,"  says  Luitprandus,  "  with  the  most  disgraceful 
and  contumelious  appellation,  we  call  him  a  Roman  ;  hoc  solo,  id  est 
Ramani  nomine,  quicquid  ignobilitatis,  quicquid  timiditatis,  quicquid 
avaritise,  quicquid  luxuriae,  quicquid  mendacii,  irnmo  quicquid  vitiorum  est 
coinprehendentes."  (Luitprandi  Legatio,  apud  Murat.,  Scriptor.  Italic., 
vol.  ii.  pars.  i.  p.  48 1.)  This  degeneracy  of  manners,  illiterate  barbarians 
imputed  to  their  love  of  learning.  Even  after  they  settled  in  the  countries 
which  they  had  conquered,  they  would  not  permit  their  children  to  be 
instructed  in  any  science.  "  For  (said  they,)  instruction  in  the  sciences 
tends  to  corrupt,  enervate,  and  depress  the  mind ;  and  he  who  has  been 
accustomed  to  tremble  under  the  rod  of  a  pedagogue  will  never  look  on  a 
sword  or  a  spear  with  an  undaunted  eye."  (Procop.,  de  Bello  Gothor., 
lib.  i.  p.  4,  ap.  Script.  Byz.,  edit.  Venet.,  voL  i.)  A  considerable  number 
of  years  elapsed  before  nations  so  rude  and  so  unwilling  to  learn  could 
produce  historians  capable  of  recording  their  transactions  or  of  describing 
their  manners  and  institutions.  By  that  time  the  memory  of  their  ancient 
condition  was  in  a  great  measure  lost,  and  few  monuments  remained  to, 
guide  their  first  writers  to  any  Certain  knowledge,  of  i.t...  If  one  expects  tQ. 


184  PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  j NOTE  in. 

receive  any  satisfactory  account  of  the  manners  and  laws  of  the  Goths. 
Lombards,  or  Franks  during  their  residence  in  those  countries  where  they 
were  originally  seated,  from  Jornandes",  Paulus  Warnefridus,  or  Gregory 
of  Tours,  the  earliest  and  most  authentic  historians  of  these  people,  he  will 
be  miserably  disappointed.  Whatever  imperfect  knowledge  has  been  con- 
veyed to  us  of  their  ancient  state  we  owe  not  to  their  own  writers,  but  to 
the  Greek  and  Roman  historians. 

NOTE  III. — Sect.  I.  p.  7. 

A  circumstance  related  by  Priscus,  in  his  history  of  the  embassy  to 
Attila,  king  of  the  Huns,  gives  a  striking  view  of  the  enthusiastic  passion 
for  war  which  prevailed  among  the  barbarous  nations.  When  the  enter- 
tainment to  which  that  fierce  conqueror  admitted  the  Roman  ambassadors 
was  ended,  two  Scythians  advanced  towards  Attila  and  recited  a  poem  in 
which  they  celebrated  his  victories  and  military  virtues.  All  the  Huns 
fixed  their  eyes  with  attention  on  the  bards.  Some  seemed  to  be  delighted 
with  the  verses  ;  others,  remembering  their  own  battles  and  exploits, 
exulted  with  joy  ;  while  such  as  were  become  feeble  through  age  burst  out 
into  tears,  bewailing  the  decay  of  their  vigour,  and  the  state  of  inactivity  in. 
which  they  were  now  obliged  to  remain.  Excerpta  ex  Historia  Prisci 
Rhetoris,  ap.  Byz.  Hist.  Scrip.,  vol.  i.  p.  45. 

NOTE  IV. — Sect.  I.  p.  12. 

A  remarkable  confirmation  of  both  parts  of  this  reasoning  occurs  in  the 
history  of  England.  The  Saxons  carried  on  the  conquest  of  that  country 
with  the  same  destructive  spirit  which  distinguished  the  other  barbarous 
nations.  The  ancient  inhabitants  of  Britain  were  either  exterminated,  or 
forced  to  take  shelter  among  the  mountains  of  Wales,  or  reduced  to  servi- 
tude. The  Saxon  government,  laws,  manners,  and  language  were  of 
consequence  introduced  into  Britain,  and  were  so  perfectly  established  that 
all  memory  of  the  institutions  previous  to  their  conquest  of  the  country 
was  in  a  great  measure  lost.  The  very  reverse  of  this  happened  in  a 
subsequent  revolution.  A  single  victory  placed  William  the  Norman  on 
the  throne  of  England.  The  Saxon  inhabitants,  though  oppressed,  were 
not  exterminated.  William  employed  the  utmost  efforts  of  his  power  and 
policy  to  make  his  new  subjects  conform  in  every  thing  to  the  Norman 
standard,  but  without  success.  The  Saxons,  though  vanquished,  were  far 
more  numerous  than  their  conquerors ;  when  the  two  races  began  to 
incorporate,  the  Saxon  laws  and  manners  gradually  gained  ground.  The 
Norman  institutions  became  unpopular  and  odious  ;  many  of  them  fell 
into  disuse  ;  and  in  the  English  constitution  and  language  at  this  day  many 
essential  parts  are  manifestly  of  Saxon,  not  of  Norman  extraction. 

NOTE  V. — Sect  I.  p.  12. 

Procopius,  the  historian,  declines,  from  a  principle  of  benevolence,  to 
give  any  particular  detail  of  the  cruelties  of  the  Goths  ;  "  lest,"  says  he, 
"  T  should  transmit  a  monument  and  example  of  inhumanity  to  succeeding 


NOTK  v.]  PROOFS   AND   ILLUSTRATIONS. 

ages."  (Proc.,  de  Bello  Goth.,  lib.  iii.  cap.  10,  ap.  Byz.  Script.,  vol.  i. 
p.  126.)  But  as  the  change  which  I  have  pointed  out  as  a  consequence 
t/f  the  settlement  of  the  barbarous  nations  in  the  countries  formerly  subject 
to  the  Roman  empire  could  not  have  taken  place  if  the  greater  part  of  the 
ancient  inhabitants  had  not  been  extirpated,  an  event  of  such  importance 
and  influence  merits  a  more  particular  illustration.  This  will  justify  me 
for  exhibiting  some  part  of  that  melancholy  spectacle  over  which  humanity 
prompted  Procopius  to  draw  a  veil.  I  shall  not,  however,  disgust  my 
readers  by  a  minute  narration,  but  rest  satisfied  with  collecting  some 
instances  of  the  devastations  made  by  two  of  the  many  nations  which 
settled  in  the  empire.  The  Vandals  were  the  first  of  the  barbarians  who 
invaded  Spain.  It  was  one  of  the  richest  and  most  populous  of  the  Roman 
provinces :  the  inhabitants  had  been  distinguished  for  courage,  and  had 
defended  their  liberty  against  the  arms  of  Rome  with  greater  obstinacy  and 
during  a  longer  course  of  years  than  any  nation  in  Europe.  But  so 
entirely  were  they  enervated  by  their  subjection  to  the  Romans  that  the 
Vandals,  who  entered  the  kingdom  A.D.  409,  completed  the  conquest  of  it 
with  such  rapidity  that  in  the  year  411  these  barbarians  divided  it  among 
them  by  casting  lots.  .  The  desolation  occasioned  by  their  invasion  is  thus 
described  by  Idatius,  an  eye-witness  :  "  The  barbarians  wasted  every 
thing  with  hostile  cruelty.  The  pestilence  was  no  less  destructive.  A 
dreadful  famine  raged  to  such  a  degree  that  the  living  were  constrained  to 
feed  on  the  dead  bodies  of  their  fellow-citizens  ;  and  all  these  terrible 
plagues  desolated  at  once  the  unhappy  kingdoms."  (Idatii  Chron.,  ap 
Biblioth.  Patrum,  vol.  vii.  p.  1233,  edit.  Lugd.,  1677.)  The  Goths 
having  attacked  the  Vandals  in  their  new  settlements,  a  fierce  war  ensued  ; 
the  country  was  plundered  by  both  parties  ;  the  cities  which  had  escaped 
from  destruction  in  the  first  invasion  of  the  Vandals  were  now  laid  in  ashes, 
and  the  inhabitants  exposed  to  suffer  every  thing  that  the  wanton  cruelty 
of  barbarians  could  inflict.  Idatius  describes  these  scenes  of  inhumanity, 
ibid.,  p.  1235,  b.  1236,  c.  f.  A  similar  account  of  their  devastations  is 
given  by  Isidorus  Hispalensis  and  other  contemporary  writers.  (Isid., 
Chron.,  ap.  Grot.,  Hist.  Goth.,  732.)  From  Spain  the  Vandals  passed 
over  into  Africa,  A.D.  428.  Africa  was,  next  to  Egypt,  the  most  fertile  of 
the  Roman  provinces.  It  was  one  of  the  granaries  of  the  empire,  and  is 
called  by  an  ancient  writer  the  soul  of  the  commonwealth.  Though  the 
army  with  which  the  Vandals  invaded  it  did  not  exceed  thirty  thousand  fight- 
ing men,  they  became  absolute  masters  of  the  province  in  less  than  two  years. 
A  contemporary  author  gives  a  dreadful  account  of  the  havoc  which  they 
made  :  "  They  found  a  province  well  cultivated,  and  enjoying  plenty,  the 
beauty  of  the  whole  earth.  They  carried  their  destructive  arms  into 
every  comer  of  it  ;  they  dispeopled  it  "by  their  devastations,  exterminating 
every  thing  with  fire  and  sword.  They  did  not  even  spare  the  vines  and 
fruit-trees,  that  those  to  whom  caves  and  inaccessible  mountains  had 
afforded  a  retreat  might  find  no  nourishment  of  any  kind.  Their  hostile 
rage  could  not  be  satiated,  and  there  was  no  place  exempted  from  the 
effects  of  it.  They  tortured  their  prisoners  with  the  most  exquisite  cruelty, 
that  they  might  force  from  them  a  discovery  of  their  hidden  treasures. 
The  more  they  discovered,  the  more  they  expected,  and  the  more  implac- 
able they  became.  Neither  the  infirmities  of  age  nor  of  sex,  neither  the 


1 86  PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  [NOTE  v. 

dignity  of  nobility  nor  the  sanctity  of  the  sacerdotal  office,  could  mitigate 
nheir  fury  ;  but  the  more  illustrious  their  prisoners  were,  the  more  barbar- 
ously they  insulted  them.  The  public  buildings  which  resisted  the 
violence  of  the  flames  they  levelled  with  the  ground.  They  left  many 
cities  without  an  inhabitant.  When  they  approached  any  fortified  placo 
which  their  undisciplined  army  could  not  reduce,  they  gathered  together  i 
multitude  of  prisoners,  and,  putting  them  to  the  sword,  left  their  bodies 
unburied,  that  the  stench  of  the  carcasses  might  oblige  the  garrison  to 
abandon  it."  (Victor  Vitensis  de  Persecutione  Africana,  ap.  Bibl.  Patrum, 
vol.  viii.  p.  666.)  St.  Augustin,  an  African,  who  survived  the  conquest  oi 
bis  country  by  the  Vandals  some  years,  gives  a  similar  description  of  theii 
cruelties.  (Opera,  vol.  x.  p.  372,  edit.  1616.)  About  a  hundred  years 
after  the  settlement  of  the  Vandals  in  Africa,  Belisarius  attacked  and  dis- 
possessed them.  Procopius,  a  contemporary  historian,  describes  the 
devastation  which  that  war  occasioned.  "  Africa,"  says  he,  "  was  so 
entirely  dispeopled  that  one  might  travel  several  days  in  it  without  meeting 
one  man  ;  and  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  in  the  course  of  the  wai 
five  millions  of  persons  perished."  (Proc.,  Hist.  Arcana,  cap.  18,  ap.  Byz. 
Script.,  vol.  i.  p.  315.)  I  have  dwelt  longer  upon  the  calamities  of  this 
province,  because  they  are  described  not  only  by  contemporary  authors, 
but  by  eye-witnesses.  The  present  state  of  Africa  confirms  their  testimony. 
Many  of  the  most  flourishing  and  populous  cities  with  which  it  was  filled 
were  so  entirely  ruined  that  no  vestiges  remain  to  point  out  where  they 
were  situated.  That  fertile  territory,  which  sustained  the  Roman  empire, 
still  lies  in  a  great  measure  uncultivated  ;  and  that  province,  which  Victor, 
in  his  barbarous  Latin,  called  speciositas  totius  terrce  florentis,  is  now  the 
retreat  of  pirates  and  banditti. 

While  the  Vandals  laid  waste  a  great  part  of  the  empire,  the  Huns 
desolated  the  remainder.  Of  all  the  barbarous  tribes  they  were  the  fiercest 
and  most  formidable.  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  a  contemporary  author,  and 
one  of  the  best  of  the  later  historians,  gives  an  account  of  their  policy  and 
manners,  which  nearly  resemble  those  of  the  Scythians  described  by  the 
ancients,  and  of  the  Tartars  known  to  the  moderns.  Some  parts  of  their 
character,  and  several  of  their  customs,  are  not  unlike  those  of  the  savages 
in  North  America.  Their  passion  for  war  was  extreme.  "  As  in  polished 
societies  (says  Ammianus)  ease  and  tranquillity  are  courted,  they  delight  in 
war  and  dangers.  He  who  falls  in  battle  is  reckoned  happy.  They  who 
die  of  old  age  or  of  disease  are  deemed  infamous.  They  boast  with  the 
utmost  exultation  of  the  number  of  enemies  whom  they  have  slain,  and,  as 
the  most  glorious  of  all  ornaments,  they  fasten  the  scalps  of  those  who 
have  fallen  by  their  hands  to  the  trappings  of  their  horses."  (Ammian. 
Marc.,  lib.  xxxi.  p.  477,  edit.  Gronov.,  Lugd.,  1693.)  Their  incursions 
into  the  empire  began  in  the  fourth  century  ;  and  the  Romans,  though  no 
strangers,  by  that  time,  to  the  effects  of  barbarous  rage,  were  astonished  at 
the  cruelty  of  their  devastations.  Thrace,  Pannonia,  and  Illyricum  were 
the  countries  which  they  first  laid  desolate.  As  they  had  at  first  no  inten- 
tiou  of  settling  in  Europe,  they  made  only  inroads  of  short  continuance 
into  the  empire  ;  but  these  were  frequent ;  and  Procopius  computes  that 
in  each  of  these,  at  a  medium,  two  hundred  thousand  persons  perished,  or 
were  carried  off  as  slaves.  (Procop.,  Hist.  Arcan.,  ap.  Byz.  Script.,  vol.  i. 


NOTE  v.]  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  187 

p.  316.)  Thrace,  the  best  cultivated  province  in  that  quarter  of  the 
empire,  was  converted  into  a  desert ;  and  when  Priscus  accompanied  the 
ambassadors  sent  to  Attila  there  were  no  inhabitants  in  some  of  the  cities, 
but  a  few  miserable  people  who  had  taken  shelter  among  the  ruins  of  the 
churches  ;  and  the  fields  were  covered  with  the  bones  of  those  who  had 
fallen  by  the  sword.  (Priscus,  ap.  Byz.  Script.,  vol.  i.  p.  34.)  Attila 
became  king  of  the  Huns,  A.D.  434.  He  is  one  of  the  greatest  and  most 
enterprising  conquerors  mentioned  in  history.  He  extended  his  empire 
over  all  the  vast  countries  comprehended  under  the  general  names  of 
Scythia  and  Germany  in  the  ancient  division  of  the  world.  While  he  was 
carrying  on  his  wars  against  the  barbarous  nations,  he  kept  the  Roman 
empire  under  perpetual  apprehensions,  and  extorted  enormous  subsidies 
from  the  timid  and  effeminate  monarchs  who  governed  it.  In  the  year 
451  he  entered  Gaul,  at  the  head  of  an  army  composed  of  all  the  various 
nations  which  he  had  subdued.  It  was  more  numerous  than  any  with 
which  the  barbarians  had  hitherto  invaded  the  empire.  The  devastations 
which  he  committed  were  horrible.  Not  only  the  open  country,  but  the 
most  nourishing  cities,  were  desolated.  The  extent  and  cruelty  of  his 
devastations  are  described  by  Salvianus  de  Gubernat.  Dei,  edit.  Baluz., 
Par.  1669,  p.  139,  etc.,  and  by  Idatius,  ubi  supra,  p.  1235.  Aetius  put 
a  stop  to  his  progress  in  that  country  by  the  famous  battle  of  Chalons,  in 
which  (if  we  may  believe  the  historians  of  that  age)  three  hundred  thousand 
pei-sons  perished.  (Idat.,  ibid.  ;  Jornandes  de  Rebus  Geticis,  ap.  Grot., 
Hist.  Gothor.,  p.  671,  Amst,  1665.)  But  the  next  year  he  resolved  to 
attack  the  centre  of  the  empire,  and,  marching  into  Italy,  wasted  it  with 
rage  inflamed  by  the  sense  of  his  late  disgrace.  What  Italy  suffered  by 
the  Huns  exceeded  all  the  calamities  which  the  preceding  incursions  of 
the  barbarians  had  brought  upon  it  Conringius  has  collected  several 
passages  from  the  ancient  historians  which  prove  that  the  devastations 
committed  by  the  Vandals  and  Huns  in  the  countries  situated  on  the  banks 
of  the  Rhine  were  no  less  cruel  and  fatal  to  the  human  race.  (Exercitatio 
de  Urbibus  Germanise,  Opera,  vol.  i.  p.  488.)  It  is  endless,  it  is  shocking, 
to  follow  these  destroyers  of  mankind  through  so  many  scenes  of  horror, 
and  to  contemplate  the  havoc  which  they  made  of  the  human  species. 

But  the  state  in  which  Italy  appears  to  have  been  during  several  ages 
after  the  barbarous  nations  settled  in  it  is  the  most  decisive  proof  of  the 
cruelty  as  well  as  extent  of  their  devastations.  Whenever  any  country  is 
thinly  inhabited,  trees  and  shrubs  spring  up  in  the  uncultivated  fields,  and, 
spreading  by  degrees,  form  large  forests ;  by  the  overflowing  of  rivers  and 
the  stagnating  of  waters,  other  parts  of  it  are  converted  into  lakes  and 
marshes.  Ancient  Italy,  which  the  Romans  rendered  the  seat  of  elegance 
and  luxury,  was  cultivated  to  the  highest  pitch.  But  so  effectually  did 
the  devastations  of  the  barbarians  destroy  all  the  effects  of  Roman  industry 
and  cultivation  that  in  the  eighth  century  a  considerable  part  of  Italy 
appears  to  have  been  covered  with  forests  and  marshes  of  great  extent. 
Muratori  enters  into  a  minute  detail  concerning  the  situation  and  limits  of 
several  of  these,  and  proves  by  the  most  authentic  evidence  that  great 
tracts  of  territory  in  all  the  different  provinces  of  Italy  were  either  overrun 
with  wood  or  laid  under  water.  Nor  did  these  occupy  parts  of  the  country 
naturally  barren  or  of  little  value,  but  were  spread  over  districts  which 


1 SS  1'ROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  [NOTE  VL 

ancient  writers  represent  as  extremely  fertile  and  which  at  present  are 
highly  cultivated.  (Muratori,  Antiquitates  Italicse  Medii  .ZEvi,  dissert,  xxi., 
vol.  ii.  pp.  149,  153,  etc.)  A  strong  proof  of  this  occurs  in  a  description 
of  the  city  of  Modena,  by  an  author  of  the  tenth  century.  (Murat., 
Script.  Rerum  Italic.,  vol.  iii.  pars.  ii.  p.  691.)  The  state  of  desc lo- 
tion in  other  countries  of  Europe  seems  to  have  "been  the  same. 
In  many  of  the  most  early  charters  now  extant,  the  lands  granted 
to  monasteries  or  to  private  persons  are  distinguished  into  such  as  are 
cultivated  or  inhabited,  and  such  as  were  eremi,  desolate.  In  many  in- 
stances lauds  are  granted  to  persons  because  they  had  taken  them  from  the 
desert,  ab  eremo,  and  had  cultivated  and  planted  them  with  inhabitants. 
This  appears  from  a  charter  of  Charlemagne,  published  by  Eckhart,  de 
Rebus  Francis  Orientalis,  vol.  ii.  p.  864,  and  from  many  charters  of  Ms 
successors  quoted  by  Du  Cange,  voc.  Eremus.  Wherever  a  right  of  pro- 
perty in  land  can  be  thus  acquired,  it  is  evident  that  the  country  must  be 
extremely  desolate  and  thinly  peopled.  The  first  settlers  in  America 
obtained  possession  of  land  by  such  a  title.  Whoever  was  able  to  clear  and 
to  cultivate  a  field  was  recognised  as  the  proprietor.  His  industry  merited 
such  a  recompense.  The  grants  in  the  charters  which  I  have  mentioned 
flow  from  a  similar  principle,  and  there  must  have  been  some  resemblance 
in  the  state  of  the  countries. 

Muratori  adds  that  during  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries  Italy  was 
greatly  infested  by  wolves  and  other  wild  beasts ;  another  mark  of  its 
being  destitute  of  inhabitants.  (Murat.,  Antiq.,  vol.  ii.  p.  163.)  Thus 
Italy,  the  pride  of  the  ancient  world  for  its  fertility  and  cultivation,  was 
reduced  to  the  state  of  a  country  newly  peopled  and  lately  rendered 
habitable. 

I  am  sensible  not  only  that  some  of  these  descriptions  of  the  devastations, 
which  I  have  quoted,  may  be  exaggerated,  but  that  the  barbarous  tribes, 
in  making  their  settlements,  did  not  proceed  invariably  in  the  same 
manner.  Some  of  them  seemed  to  be  bent  on  exterminating  the  ancient 
inhabitants  ;  others  were  more  disposed  to  incorporate  with  them.  It  is 
not  my  province  either  to  inquire  into  the  causes  which  occasioned  this 
variety  in  the  conduct  of  the  conquerors,  or  to  describe  the  state  of  those 
countries  where  the  ancient  inhabitants  were  treated  most  mildly.  The 
facts  which  I  have  produced  are  sufficient  to  justify  the  account  which  I 
have  given  in  the  text,  and  to  prove  that  the  destruction  of  the  human 
species,  occasioned  by  the  hostile  invasions  of  the  Northern  nations  and 
their  subsequent  settlements,  was  much  greater  than  many  authors  seem 
to  imagine. 

NOTE  VI. — Sect  I.  p.  14. 

I  have  observed,  Note  II.,  that  our  only  certain  information  concerning 
the  ancient  state  of  the  barbarous  nations  must  be  derived  from  the  Greek 
and  Roman  writers.  Happily,  an  account  of  the  institutions  and  customs 
of  one  people,  to  which  those  of  all  the  rest  seem  to  have  been  in  a  great 
measure  similar,  has  been  transmitted  to  us  by  two  authors,  the  most 
capable,  perhaps,  that  ever  wrote,  of  observing  them  with  profound  dis- 
cernment and  of  describing  them  with  propriety  and  force.  The  reader 


NOTE  vi.]  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  180 

must  perceive  that  Caesar  and  Tacitus  are  the  authors  whom  I  have  in 
view.  The  former  gives  a  short  account  of  the  ancient  Germans  in  a 
lew  chapters  of  the  sixth  book  of  his  Commentaries  ;  the  latter  wrote  a 
treatise  expressly  on  that  subject.  These  are  the  most  precious  and  in- 
structive monuments  of  antiquity  to  the  present  inhabitants  of  Europe. 
From  them  we  learn, — 

1.  That  the  state  of  society  among  the  ancient  Germans  was  of  the 
rudest  and  most  simple  form.  They  subsisted  entirely  by  hunting 
or  by  pasturage.  (Caes.,  lib.  vi.  c.  21.)  They  neglected  agriculture,  and 
lived  chiefly  on  milk,  cheese,  and  flesh.  (Ibid.,  c.  22.)  Tacitus  agrees 
with  him  in  most  of  these  points.  (De  Morib.  Germ.,  c.  14,  15,  23.) 
The  Goths  were  equally  negligent  of  agriculture.  (Prise.  Rhet.,  ap.  By/.. 
Script.,  v.  i.  p.  31,  B.)  Society  was  in  the  same  state  among  the  Huns, 
who  disdained  to  cultivate  the  earth  or  to  touch  a  plough.  (Amm. 
Marcel.,  lib.  xxxi.  p.  475.)  The  same  manners  took  place  among  the 
Alans.  (Ibid.,  p.  477.)  While  society  remains  in  this  simple  state,  men 
by  uniting  together  scarcely  relinquish  any  portion  of  their  natural  in- 
dependence. Accordingly,  we  are  informed,  2.  That  the  authority  of 
civil  government  was  extremely  limited  among  the  Germans.  During 
times  of  peace  they  had  no  common  or  fixed  magistrate,  but  the  chief 
men  of  every  district  dispensed  justice  and  accommodated  differences. 
(Ctes.  ibid.,  c.  23.)  Their  kings  had  not  absolute  or  unbounded  power; 
their  authority  consisted  rather  in  the  privilege  of  advising  than  in  the 
power  of  commanding.  Matters  of  small  consequence  were  determined 
by  t,he  chief  men ;  affairs  of  importance,  by  the  whole  community. 
(Tacit.,  c.  7,  11.)  The  Huns,  in  like  manner,  deliberated  in  common 
concerning  every  business  of  moment  to  the  society,  and  were  not  sub- 
ject to  the  rigour  of  regal  authority.  (Amm.  Marcel.,  lib.  xxxi.  p.  474.) 

3.  Every  individual  among  the  ancient  Germans  was  left  at  liberty  to 
choose  whether  he  would  take  part  in  any  military  enterprise  which  was 
proposed  ;  there  seems  to  have  been  no  obligation  to  engage  in  it  imposed 
on  him  by  public  authority.      "  When  any   of  the   chief  men  proposes  an 
expedition,  such  as  approve  of  the  cause  and   of  the  leader  rise  up  and 
declare  their  intention  of  following  him  ;  after  coming  under  this  engage- 
ment, those  who  do  not  fulfil  it  are  considered  as  deserters  and  traitors, 
and  are  looked  upon  as  infamous."     (Caes.,  ibid.,  c.  23.)     Tacitus  plainly 
points  at  the  same  custom,  though  in  terms  more  obscure.     (Tacit.,  c.  11.) 

4.  As  every  individual  was  so  independent,  and  master  in  so  great  a  degree 
of  his  own  actions,  it  became,  of  consequence,  the  great  object  of  every 
person  among  the  Germans,  who  aimed  at  being  a  leader,  to  gain  adherents 
and  attach  them  to  his  person  and  interest.     These  adherents  Caesar  calls 
ambacti  and   clientes,  i.e.,  retainers  or  clients ;  Tacitus,   comites,  or  com- 
panions.    The  chief  distinction  and  power  of  the  leaders  consisted  in  being 
attended  by  a  numerous  band  of  chosen  youth.     This  was  their  pride  as 
well  as  ornament  during  peace,  and  their  defence  in  war.     The  leaders 
gained  or  preserved  the  favour  of  these  retainers  by  presents  of  armour 
and  of  horses,  or  by  the  profuse  though  inelegant  hospitality  with  which 
they  entertained  them.      (Tacit.,  c.  14,  15.)     5.   Another  consequence  of 
the  personal  liberty  and  independence  which  the  Germans  retained,  even 
after  they  united  in  society,  was  their  circumscribing  the  criminal  juris- 


190  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  [NOTE  vi. 

diction  of  the  magistrate  within  very  narrow  limits,  and  their  not  only 
claiming,  but  exercising,  almost  all  the  rights  of  private  resentment  and 
revenge.  Their  magistrates  had  not  the  power  either  of  imprisoning  or 
of  inflicting  any  corporal  punishment  on  a  free  man.  (Tacit.,  c.  7.) 
Every  person  was  obliged  to  avenge  the  wrongs  which  his  parents  or 
friends  had  sustained.  Their  enmities  were  hereditary,  but  not  irre- 
concilable. Even  murder  was  compensated  by  paying  a  certain  num- 
ber of  cattle.  (Tacit.,  c.  21.)  A  part  of  the  fine  went  to  the  king,  or 
state,  a  part  to  the  person  who  had  been  injured,  or  to  his  kindred. 
Ibid.,  c.  12. 

Those  particulars  concerning  the  institutions  and  manners  of  the  Ger- 
mans, though  well  known  to  every  person  conversant  in  ancient  literature, 
I  have  thought  proper  to  arrange  in  this  order,  and  to  lay  before  such  of 
my  readers  as  may  be  less  acquainted  with  these  facts,  both  because  they 
confirm  the  account  which  I  have  given  of  the  state  of  the  barbarous 
nations,  and  because  they  tend  to  illustrate  all  the  observations  I  shall 
have  .occasion  to  make  concerning  the  various  changes  in  their  government 
and  customs.  The  laws  and  customs  introduced  by  the  barbarous  nations 
into  their  new  settlements  are  the  best  commentary  on  the  writings  of 
Caesar  and  Tacitus ;  and  their  observations  are  the  best  key  to  a  perfect 
knowledge  of  these  laws  and  customs. 

One  circumstance  with  respect  to  the  testimonies  of  Caesar  and  Tacitus 
concerning  the  Germans  merits  attention.  Caesar  wrote  his  brief  account 
of  their  manners  more  than  a  hundred  years  before  Tacitus  composed  his 
Treatise  de  Moribus  Germanorum.  A  hundred  years  make  a  considerable 
period  in  the  progress  of  national  manners,  especially  if  during  that  time 
those  people  who  are  rude  and  unpolished  have  had  much  communication 
with  more  civilised  states.  This  was  the  case  with  the  Germans.  Their 
intercourse  with  the  Romans  began  when  Caesar  crossed  the  Rhine,  and 
increased  greatly  during  the  interval  between  that  event  and  the  time  when 
Tacitus  flourished.  We  may  accordingly  observe  that  the  manners  of  the 
Germans  in  his  time,  which  Caesar  describes,  were  less  improved  than 
those  of  the  same  people  as  delineated  by  Tacitus.  Besides  this,  it  is  re- 
markable that  there  was  a  considerable  difference  in  the  state  of  society 
among  the  different  tribes  of  Germans.  The  Suiones  were  so  much  im- 
proved that  they  began  to  be  corrupted.  (Tacit.,  c.  44.)  The  Fenni 
were  so  barbarous  that  it  is  wonderful  how  they  were  able  to  subsist. 
(Ibid.,  c.  46.)  Whoever  undertakes  to  describe  the  manners  of  the  Ger- 
mans, or  to  found  any  political  theory  upon  the  state  of  society  among 
them,  ought  carefully  to  attend  to  both  these  circumstances. 

Before  I  quit  this  subject,  it  may  not  be  improper  to  observe  that, 
though  successive  alterations  in  their  institutions,  together  with  the  gradual 
progress  of  refinement,  have  made  an  entire  change  in  the  manners  of  the 
various  people  who  conquered  the  Roman  empire,  there  is  still  one  race  of 
men  nearly  in  the  same  political  situation  with  theirs  when  they  first 
settled  in  their  new  conquests  ;  I  mean  the  various  tribes  and  nations  of 
savages  in  North  America.  It  cannot,  then,  be  considered  either  as  a 
digression,  or  as  an  improper  indulgence  of  curiosity,  to  inquire  whether 
this  similarity  in  their  political  state  has  occasioned  any  resemblance 
between  their  character  and  manners.  If  the  likeness  turns  out  to  be 


NOTE  vi.]  PKOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS  191 

striking,  it  is  a  stronger  proof  that  a  just  account  has  been  given  of  the 
ancient  inhabitants  of  Europe  than  the  testimony  even  of  Caasar  or  of 
Tacitus. 

1.  The  Americans  subsist  chiefly  by  hunting  and  fishing.  Some  tribes 
neglect  agriculture  entirely.  Among  those  who  cultivate  some  small  spot 
near  their  huts,  that,  together  with  all  works  of  labour,  is  performed  by 
the  women.  (P.  Charlevoix,  Journal  historique  d'un  Voyage  de  1'Ame- 
rique,  4to,  Par.  1744,  p.  334.)  In  such  a  state  of  society,  the  common 
wants  of  men  being  few  and  their  mutual  dependence  upon  each  other 
femall,  their  union  is  extremely  imperfect  and  feeble,  and  they  continue  to 
enjoy  their  natural  liberty  almost  unimpaired.  It  is  the  first  idea  of  an 
American  that  every  man  is  born  free  and  independent,  and  that  no  power 
on  earth  hath  any  right  to  diminish  or  circumscribe  his  natural  liberty. 
There  is  hardly  any  appearance  of  subordination,  either  in  civil  or  domestic 
government.  Every  o:ie  does  what  he  pleases.  A  father  and  mother  live 
with  their  children  like  persons  whom  chance  has  brought  together  and 
whom  no  common  bond  unites.  Their  manner  of  educating  their  children 
is  suitable  to  this  principle.  They  never  chastise  or  punish  them,  even 
during  their  infancy.  As  they  advance  in  years,  they  continue  to  be 
entirely  masters  of  their  own  actions,  and  seem  not  to  be  conscious  of  being 
responsible  for  any  part  of  thfciv  -ond'act  (Ibid.,  pp.  272,  273.)  2.  The 
power  of  their  civil  magistrates  is  extremely  limited.  Among  most  of 
their  tribes,  the  sachem,  or  chief,  is  elective.  A  council  of  old  men  is 
chosen  to  assist  him,  without  whose  advice  he  determines  no  affair  of  im- 
portance. The  sachems  neither  possess  nor  claim  any  great  degree  of 
authority.  They  propose  and  entreat,  rather  than  command.  The 
obedience  of  their  people  is  altogether  voluntary.  (Ibid.,  pp.  266,  268.) 
3.  The  savages  of  America  engage  in  their  military  enterprises,  not  from 
constraint,  but  choice.  When  war  is  resolved,  a  chief  arises  and  offers 
himself  to  be  the  leader.  Such  as  are  willing  (for  they  compel  no  person) 
stand  up  one  after  another  and  sing  their  war-song.  But  if,  after  this,  any 
of  these  should  refuse  to  follow  the  leader  to  whom  they  have  engaged,  his 
life  would  be  in  danger,  and  he  would  be  considered  as  the  most  infamous 
of  men.  (Ibid.,  pp.  217,  218.)  4.  Such  as  engage  to  follow  any  leader 
expect  to  be  treated  by  him  with  great  attention  and  respect ;  and  he  is 
obliged  to  make  them  presents  of  considerable  value.  (Ibid.,  p.  218.) 
5.  Among  the  Americans,  the  magistrate  has  scarcely  any  criminal  juris- 
diction. (Ibid.,  p.  272.)  Upon  receiving  any  injury,  the  person  or 
family  offended  may  inflict  what  punishment  they  please  on  the  person 
who  was  the  author  of  it  (Ibid.,  p.  274.)  Their  resentment  and  demre 
of  vengeance  are  excessive  and  implacable.  Time  can  neither  extinguish 
nor  abate  it.  It  is  the  chief  inheritance  parents  leave  to  their  children  ; 
it  is  transmitted  from  generation  to  generation,  until  an  occasion  be  found 
of  satisfying  it.  (Ibid.,  p.  309.)  Sometimes,  however,  the  offended  party 
is  appeased.  A  compensation  is  paid  for  a  murder  that  has  been  com- 
mitted. The  relations  of  the  deceased  receive  it ;  and  it  consists  most 
commonly  of  a  captive  taken  in  war,  who,  being  substituted  in  place  of 
the  person  who  was  murdered,  assumes  his  name  and  is  adopted  into  his 
family.  (Ibid.,  p.  274.)  The  resemblance  holds  in  many  other  particu- 
lars. It  is  sufficient  for  my  purpose  to  have  pointed  out  the  similarity  oi 


192  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  [NOTE  vlf. 

those  great  features  which  distinguish  and  characterise  both  peopla 
Bochart,  and  other  philologists  of  the  last  century,  who,  with  more  erudi- 
tion than  science,  endeavoured  to  trace  the  migrations  of  various  nations, 
and  who  were  apt  upon  the  slightest  appearance  of  resemblance  to  find  an 
affinity  between  nations  far  removed  from  each  other,  and  to  conclude  that 
they  were  descended  from  the  same  ancestors,  would  hardly  have  failed,  on 
viewing  such  an  amazing  similarity,  to  pronounce  with  confidence  "that  the 
Germans  and  Americans  must  be  the  same  people."  But  a  philosopher  will 
satisfy  himself  with  observing  "  that  the  characters  of  nations  depend  on 
the  state  of  society  in  which  they  live,  and  on  the  political  institutions 
established  among  them  ;  and  that  the  human  mind,  whenever  it  is  placed 
in  the  same  situation,  will,  in  ages  the  most  distant  and  in  countries  the 
most  remote,  assume  the  same  form  and  be  distinguished  by  the  same 
manners." 

I  have  pushed  the  comparison  between  the  Germans  and  Americans  no 
further  than  was  necessary  for  the  illustration  of  my  subject.  I  do  not 
pretend  that  the  state  of  society  in  the  two  countries  was  perfectly  similar 
in  every  respect.  Many  of  the  German  tribes  were  more  civilised  than 
the  Americans.  Some  of  them  were  not  unacquainted  with  agriculture  ; 
almost  all  of  them  had  flocks  of  tame  cattle,  and  depended  upon  them  for 
the  chief  part  of  their  subsistence.  Most  of  the  American  tribes  subsist 
by  hunting,  and  are  in  a  ruder  and  more  simple  state  than  the  ancient 
Germans.  The  resemblance,  however,  between  their  condition  is  greater, 
perhaps,  than  any  that  history  affords  an  opportunity  of  observing  between 
any  two  races  of  uncivilised  people  ;  and  this  has  produced  a  surprising 
similarity  of  manners. 

NOTE  VII. Soct.  I.  p.  14. 

The  booty  gained  by  an  army  belonged  to  the  army.  The  king  himself 
had  no  part  of  it  but  what  he  acquired  by  lot.  A  remarkable  instance  of 
this  occurs  in  the  history  of  the  Franks.  The  army  of  Clovis,  the  founder 
of  the  French  monarchy,  having  plundered  a  church,  carried  off,  among 
other  sacred  utensils,  a  vase  of  extraordinary  size  and  beauty.  The  bishop 
sent  deputies  to  Clovis  beseeching  him  to  restore  the  vase,  that  it  might  be 
again  employed  in  the  sacred  services  to  which  it  had  been  consecrated. 
Olovis  desired  the  deputies  to  follow  him  to  Soissons,  as  the  booty  was  to 
be  divided  in  that  place,  and  promised  that  if  the  lot  should  give  him  the 
disposal  of  the  vase  he  would  grant  what  the  bishop  desired.  When  lie 
came  to  Soissons,  and  all  the  booty  was  placed  in  one  great  heap  in  the 
middle  of  the  army,  Clovis  entreated  that  before  making  the  division  they 
would  give  him  that  vase  over  and  above  his  share.  All  appeared  willing 
to  gratify  the  king  and  to  comply  with  his  request,  when  a  fierce  and 
haughty  soldier  lifted  up  his  battle-axe,  and,  striking  the  vase  with  the 
utmost  violence,  cried  out,  with  a  loud  voice,  "  You  shall  receive  nothing 
here  but  that  to  which  the  lot  gives  you  a  right."  Gregor.  Turon.,  Histor. 
Francorum,  lib.  ii.  c.  27,  p.  70,  Par.  1610. 


vm. j          PllOOFtJ  AND  ILLUSTitATluNS.  1U3 


NOTE  VIII.— Sect  I.  p.  16. 

The  history  of  the  establishment  and  progress  of  the  feudal  system  is  an 
interesting  object  to  all  the  nations  of  Europe.  lu  some  countries  their 
Jurisprudence  and  laws  are  still  in  a  great  measure  feudal.  In  others, 
many  forms  and  practices  established  by  custom,  or  founded  on  statutes, 
took  their  rise  from  the  feudal  law,  and  cannot  be  understood  without 
attending  to  the  ideas  peculiar  to  it.  Several  authors  of  the  highest 
reputation  for  genius  and  erudition  have  endeavoured  to  illustrate  this 
subject,  but  still  many  parts  of  it  are  obscure.  I  shall  endeavour  to  trace 
with  precision  the  progress  and  variation  of  ideas  concerning  property  in 
land  among  the  barbarous  nations,  and  shall  attempt  to  point  out  the 
causes  which  introduced  these  changes,  as  well  as  the  effects  which  followed 
upon  them.  Property  in  land  seems  to  have  gone  through  four  successive 
changes  among  the  people  who  settled  in  the  various  provinces  of  the 
Roman  empire. 

I.  While  the  barbarous  nations  remained  in  their  original  countries, 
their  property  in  land  was  only  temporary,  and  they  had  no  certain  limits 
to  their  possession.  After  feeding  their  flocks  in  one  district,  they  removed 
with  them,  and  with  their  wives  and  families,  to  another,  and  abandoned 
that  likewise  in  a  short  time.     They  were  not,  in   consequence  of  this 
imperfect  species  of  property,  brought  under  any  positive  or  formal  obliga- 
tion to  serve  the  community ;  all  their  services  were  purely  voluntary. 
Every  individual  was  at  liberty  to   choose  how  far  he  would  contribute 
towards  carrying  on  any  military  enterprise.      If  he  followed  a  leader  in 
any  expedition,  it  was  from  attachment,  not  from  a  sense  of  obligation. 
The  clearest  proof  of  this  has  been  produced  in  Note  VI.     While  property 
continued  in  this  state,  we  can  discover  nothing  that  bears  any  resemblance 
to  a  feudal  tenure,  or  to  the  subordination  and  military  service  which  the 
feudal  system  introduced. 

II.  Upon  settling  in  the  countries  which  they  had  subdued,  the  vic- 
torious troops  divided  the  conquered  lands.     Whatever  portion  of  them 
fell  to  a  soldier,  he  seized  as  the  recompense  due  to  his  valour,  as  a  settle- 
ment acquired  by  his  own  sword.     He  took  possession  of  it  as  a  freeman 
in  full  property.     He  enjoyed  it  during  his  own  life,  and  could  dispose  of 
it  at  ple;isure,  or  transmit  it  as  an  inheritance  to  his  children.     Thus  pro- 
perty in  land  became  fixed.     It  was  at  the  same  time  allodial ;  i.e.,  the 
possessor  had  the  entire  right  of  property  and  dominion  ;  he  held  of  no 
sovereign  or  superior  lord  to  whom  he  was  bound  to  do  homage  and  per- 
form service.     But  as  these  new  proprietors  were  in  some  danger  (as  has 
been  observed  in  the   text)   of  being  disturbed  by  the  remainder  of  the 
ancient  inhabitants,  ancf   In  still  greater  danger  of  being  attacked  by  suc- 
cessive colonies  of  borl«mans  as  fierce  and  rapacious  as  themselves,  they 
saw  the  necessity  of  coming  under  obligations  to  defend  the  community 
more  explicit  than  those  to  which  they  had  been  subject  in  their  original 
habitations.      On  this  account,  immediately  upon  their  fixing  in  their  new 
settlements,  every  freeman  became  bound  to  take   arms  in  defence  of  the 
community,  and,  if  he  refused  or  neglected  so  to  do,  was  liable  to  a  con- 

VOL.    I.  O 


194  PfiOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS,          [NOTE  viii 

eideiable  penalty.  I  do  not  mean  that  any  contract  of  this  kind  was 
formally  concluded  or  mutually  ratified  by  any  legal  solemnity.  It  was 
established  by  tacit  consent,  like  the  other  compacts  which  hold  society 
together.  The  mutual  security  and  preservation  made  it  the  interest  of 
all  to  recognize  its  authority  and  to  enforce  the  observation  of  it.  We  can 
trace  back  this  new  obligation  on  the  proprietors  of  land  to  a  very  early 
period  in  the  history  of  the  Franks.  Chilperic,  who  began  his  reign 
A.D.  562,  exacted  a  fine,  bannos  jussit  exigi,  from  certain  persons  who  had 
refused  to  accompany  him  in  an  expedition.  (Gregor.  Turon.,  lib.  v.  c. 
26,  p.  211.)  Childebert,  who  began  his  reign  A.D.  576,  proceeded  in  the 
same  manner  against  others  who  had  been  guilty  of  a  like  crime.  (Ibid., 
lib.  vii.  c.  42,  p.  342.)  Such  a  fine  could  not  have  been  exacted  while 
property  continued  in  its  first  state  and  military  service  was  entirely  volun- 
tary. Charlemagne  ordained  that  every  freeman  who  possessed  five  mansi, 
i.e.,  sixty  acres,  of  land,  in  property,  should  march  in  person  against  the 
enemy.  (Capitul.,  A.D.  807.)  Louis  le  Debonnaire,  A.D.  815,  granted 
lands  to  certain  Spaniards  who  fled  from  the  Saracens,  and  allowed  them 
to  settle  in  his  territories,  on  condition  that  they  should  serve  in  the  army 
like  other  freemen.  (Capitul.,  vol.  i.  p.  500.)  By  land  possessed  in  pro- 
perty, which  is  mentioned  in  the  law  of  Charlemagne,  we  are  to  under- 
stand, according  to  the  style  of  that  age,  allodial  land ;  alodes  and 
proprietas,  alodum  and  proprium,  being  words  perfectly  synonymous.  (Du 
Cange,  voce  Alodis.}  The  clearest  proof  of  the  distinction  between 
allodial  and  beneficiary  possession  is  contained  in  two  charters  published 
by  Muratori,  by  which  it  appears  that  a  person  might  possess  one  part  of 
his  estate  as  allodial,  which  he  could  dispose  of  at  pleasure,  the  other  as  a 
beneficium,  of  which  he  had  only  the  usufruct,  the  property  returning  to 
the  superior  lord  on  his  demise.  (Antiq.  Ital.  Medii  ^Evi,  vol.  i.  pp. 
559,  565.)  The  same  distinction  is  pointed  out  in  a  capitulare  of  Charle- 
magne, A.D.  812,  edit.  Baluz.,  vol.  i.  p.  491.  Count  Everard,  who 
married  a  daughter  of  Louis  le  Debonnaire,  in  the  curious  testament  by 
which  he  disposes  of  his  vast  estate  among  his  children,  distinguishes 
between  what  he  possessed  proprietate  and  what  he  held  beneficio;  and  it 
appears  that  the  greater  part  was  allodial,  A.D.  837.  Aub.  Miraei  Opera 
Diplomatica,  Lovan.,  1723,  vol.  i.  p.  19. 

In  the  same  manner  liber  homo  is  commonly  opposed  to  vassus  or  vassallus, 
the  former  denotes  an  allodial  proprietor,  the  latter  one  who  held  of  a 
superior.  These  free  men  were  under  an  obligation  to  serve  the  state  ; 
and  this  duty  was  considered  as  so  sacred  that  freemen  were  prohibited  from 
entering  into  holy  orders  unless  they  had  obtained  the  consent  of  the 
sovereign.  The  reason  given  for  this  in  the  statute  is  remarkable  :  "  For 
we  are  informed  that  some  do  so  not  so  much  out  of  devotion  as  in  order  to 
avoid  that  military  service  which  they  are  bound  to  perform."  (Capitul., 
lib.  i.  §  114.)  If  upon  being  summoned  into  the  field  any  freeman  refused 
to  obey,  a  full  herebannum,  i.e.,  a  fine  of  sixty  crowns,  was  to  be  exacted 
from  him  according  to  the  law  of  the  Franks.  (Capit.  Car.  Magn.,  ap.  Leg. 
Longob.,  lib.  i.  tit.  14,  §  13,  p.  539.)  This  expression,  according  to  the 
]aw  of  the  Franks,  seems  to  imply  that  both  the  obligation  to  serve,  and 
the  penalty  on  those  that  disregarded  it,  were  coeval  with  the  laws  made 
by  the  Franks  at  their  first  settlement  in  Gaul.  This  fine  was  levied  with 


NOTE  viii.]          PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  195 

such  rigour  "  that  if  any  person  convicted  of  this  crime  was  insolvent  he 
was  reduced  to  servitude,  and  continued  in  that  state  until  imch  time  as 
hia  labour  should  amount  to  the  value  of  the  lierebannum."  (Ibid.)  The 
ninperor  Lotharius  rendered  the  penalty  still  more  severe ;  and  if  any 
person  possessing  such  an  extent  of  property  as  made  it  incumbent  on  him 
to  take  the  field  in  person  refused  to  obey  the  summons,  all  his  goods  were 
declared  to  be  forfeited,  and  he  himself  might  be  punished  with  banish- 
ment. Murat.,  Script.  Ital.,  vol.  i.  pars.  ii.  p.  153. 

III.  Property  in  land  having  thus  become  fixed,  and  subject  to  military 
service,  another  change  was  introduced,  though  slowly  and  step  by  step. 
We  learn  from  Tacitus  that  the  chief  men  among  the  Germans  endeavoured 
to  attach  to  their  persons  and  interests  certain  adherents  whom  he  calls 
comites.  These  fought  under  their  standard  and  followed  them  in  all  their 
enterprises.  The  same  custom  continued  among  them  in  their  new  settle- 
ments, and  those  attached  or  devoted  followers  were  called  fideles,  antrus- 
tiones,  homines  in  truste  dominica,  leudes.  Tacitus  informs  us  that  the 
rank  of  a  comes  was  deemed  honourable.  (De  Morib.,  Germ.,  c.  13.) 
The  composition,  which  is  the  standard  by  which  we  must  judge  of  the 
rank  and  condition  of  persons  in  the  Middle  Ages,  paid  for  the  murder  of 
one  in  truste  dominica,  was  triple  to  that  paid  for  the  murder  of  a  freeman. 
(Leg.  Salicor.,  tit.  44,  §§  1  et  2.)  While  the  Germans  remained  in  their 
own  country,  they  courted  the  favour  of  these  comites  by  presents  of  arms 
and  horses,  and  by  hospitality.  (See  Note  VI.)  As  long  as  they  had  no 
fixed  property  in  land,  these  were  the  only  gifts  that  they  could  bestow, 
and  the  only  reward  which  their  followers  desired.  But  upon  their  settling 
in  the  countries  which  they  conquered,  and  when  the  value  of  property 
came  to  be  understood  among  them,  instead  of  those  slight  presents,  the 
kings  and  chieftains  bestowed  a  more  substantial  recompense  in  land  on 
their  adherents.  These  grants  were  called  beneficia,  because  they  were 
gratuitous  donations  ;  and  honores,  because  they  were  regarded  as  marks  of 
distinction.  What  were  the  services  originally  exacted  in  return  for  these 
beneficia  cannot  be  determined  with  aksolute  precision ;  because  there  are 
no  records  so  ancient.  When  allodial  possessions  were  first  rendered  feudal, 
they  were  not  at  once  subjected  to  all  the  feudal  services.  The  transition 
here,  as  in  all  other  changes  of  importance,  was  gradual.  As  the  great  object 
of  a  feudal  vassal  was  to  obtain  protection,  when  allodial  proprietors  first 
consented  to  become  vassals  of  any  powerful  leader  they  continued  to 
retain  as  much  of  their  ancient  independence  as  was  consistent  with  that 
new  relation.  The  homage  which  they  did  to  their  superior,  of  whom 
they  chose  to  hold,  was  called  homagium  planum,  and  bound  them  to 
nothing  more  than  fidelity,  but  without  any.  obligation  either  of  military 
service  or  attendance  in  the  courts  of  their  superior.  Of  this  homagium 
planum  some  traces,  though  obscure,  may  still  be  discovered.  (Biussel, 
torn,  i.  p.  97.)  Among  the  ancient  writs  published  by  D.  D.  de  Vic  and 
Vaisette,  Hist,  de  Langued.,  are  a  great  many  which  they  call  homagia. 
They  seem  to  be  an  intermediate  step  between  the  homagium  planum  men- 
tioned by  Brussel,  and  the  engagement  to  perform  complete  feudal  service. 
The  one  party  promises  protection  and  grants  certain  castles  or  lands  ;  the 
other  engages  to  defend  the  person  of  the  grantor,  and  to  assist  him  like- 
wise in  defending  his  property  as  often  as  he  shall  be  summoned  to  do  so. 

o  2 


19t)  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTEATIONS.          [NOTE  vm. 

But  these  engagements  are  accompanied  with  none  of  the  feudal  formalities, 
and  no  mention  is  made  of  any  of  the  other  feudal  services.  They  appear 
i-ather  to  he  a  mutual  contract  between  equals  than  the  engagement  of  a 
vassal  to  perform  services  to  a  superior  lord.  (Preuves  de  1'Hist.  de  Lang., 
torn.  ii.  p.  173,  et  passim.)  As  soon  as  men  were  accustomed  to  these, 
the  other  feiidal  services  were  gradually  introduced.  M.  de  Montesquieu 
considers  these  beneficia  as  fiefs,  which  originally  subjected  those  who  held 
them  to  military  service.  (L'Esprit  desLoix,  1.  xxx.  c.  3  et  16.)  M.  1'Abbe' 
de  Mably  contends  that  such  as  held  these  were  at  first  subjected  to  no 
other  service  than  what  was  incumbent  on  every  freeman.  (Observations 
sur  1'Histoire  cle  France,  i.  356.)  But  upon  comparing  their  proofs  and 
reasonings  and  conjectures  it  seems  to  he  evident  that  as  every  freeman,  in 
consequence  of  his  allodial  property,  was  bound  to  serve  the  community 
tinder  a  severe  penalty,  no  good  reason  can  be  assigned  for  conferring  these 
beneficia  if  they  did  not  subject  such  as  received  them  to  some  new  obliga- 
tion. Why  should  a  king  have  stripped  himself  of  his  domain,  if  he  had 
not  expected  that  by  parcelling  it  out  he  might  acquire  a  right  to  services 
to  which  he  had  formerly  no  title  ]  We  may  then  warrantably  conclude, 
"  That  as  allodial  property  subjected  those  who  possessed  it  to  serve  the 
community,  so  beneficia  subjected  such  as  held  them  to  personal  service 
and  fidelity  to  him  from  whom  they  received  these  lands."  These  beneficia 
were  granted  originally  only  during  pleasure.  No  circumstance  relating 
to  the  customs  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  better  ascertained  than  this  ;  and 
innumerable  proofs  of  it  might  be  added  to  those  produced  in  L'Esprit  des 
Loix,  L  xxx.  c.  16,  and  by  Du  Cange,  vocc.  Beneficium  et  Feudum. 

IV.  But  the  possession  of  benefices  did  not  continue  long  in  this  state. 
A  precarious  tenure  during  pleasure  was  not  sufficient  to  satisfy  such  as 
held  lands,  and  by  various  means  they  gradually  obtained  a  confirmation 
of  their  benefices  during  life.  (Feudor.,  lib.  L  tit  i.)  Du  Cange  pro- 
duces several  quotations  from  ancient  charters  and  chronicles  in  proof  of 
this.  (Gloss.,  voc.  Beneficium.)  After  this  it  was  easy  to  obtain  or  extort 
charters  rendering  beneficia  hereditary,  fii-st  in  the  direct  line,  then  in  the 
collateral,  and  at  last  in  the  female  line.  Leg.  Longob.,  lib.  iii.  tit.  8  ;  Du 
Cange,  voc.  Beneficium. 

It  is  no  easy  matter  to  fix  the  precise  tune  when  each  of  these  changes 
took  place.  M.  1'Abbe'  Mably  conjectures,  with  some  probability,  that 
Charles  Martel  first  introduced  the  practice  of  granting  beneficia  for  life. 
(Observat.,  torn,  i  pp.  103,  160.)  And  that  Louis  le  Debonnaire  was 
among  the  first  who  rendered  them  hereditary,  is  evident  from  the 
authorities  to  which  he  refers.  (Ibid.,  429.)  Mabillon,  however,  has 
published  a  placitum  of  Louis  le  Ddbonnaire,  A.J>.  860,  by  which  it  appears 
that  he  still  continued  to  grant  some  beneficia  only  during  life.  (De  Re  Dip- 
lomatica,  lib.  vL  p.  353.)  In  the  year  889,  Odo,  king  of  France,  granted 
lands  to  "  Ricabodo,  fideli  suo,  jure  beneficiario  et  fructuario,"  during  his 
own  life  :  and  if  he  should  die,  and  a  son  were  bom  to  him,  that  right 
was  to  continue  during  the  life  of  his  son.  (Mabillon,  ut  supra,  p.  556.) 
This  was  an  intermediate  step  between  fiefs  merely  during  life  and  fiefs 
hereditary  to  perpetuity.  While  beneficia  continued  under  their  first  form, 
and  were  held  only  during  pleasure,  he  who  granted  them  not  only  exer- 
cised the  dominium,  or  prerogative  of  superior  lord,  but  he  retained  th* 


(TOTE  vni.]  PBOOFS   AND   ILLUSTRATIONS.  197 

property,  giving  his  vassal  only  the  usufruct.  But  under  the  latter  form, 
when  they  became  hereditary,  although  feudal  lawyers  continued  to  define 
a  beneficium  agreeably  to  its  original  nature,  the  property  was  in  effect 
taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the  superior  lords  and  lodged  in  those  of  the 
vassal.  As  soon  as  the  reciprocal  advantages  of  the  feudal  mode  of  tenure 
came  to  be  understood  by  superiors  as  well  as  vassals,  .that  species  of  hold- 
ing became  so  agreeable  to  both  that  not  only  lands,  but  casual  rents, 
such  as  the  profits  of  a  toll,  the  fare  paid  at  ferries,  etc.,  the  salaries 
or  perquisites  of  offices,  and  even  pensions  themselves,  were  granted  and 
held  as  fiefs  ;  and  military  service  was  promised  and  exacted  on  account 
of  these.  (Morice,  Me'm.  pour  servir  de  Preuves  k  1'Hist.  de  Bretagne, 
torn.  ii.  pp.  78,  690  ;  Brussel,  torn.  i.  p.  41.)  How  absurd  soever  it  may 
seem  to  grant  or  to  hold  such  precarious  and  casual  property  as  a  fief, 
there  are  instances  of  feudal  tenure  still  more  singular.  The  profits 
arising  from  the  masses  said  at  an  altar  were  properly  an  ecclesiastical 
revenue,  belonging  to  the  clergy  of  the  church  or  monastery  which  per- 
formed that  duty ;  but  these  were  sometimes  seized  by  the  powerful 
barons.  In  order  to  ascertain  their  right  to  them,  they  held  them  as  fiefs 
of  the  Church,  and  parcelled  them  out  in  the  same  manner  as  other  pro- 
perty to  their  sub-vassals.  (Bouquet,  Recueil  des  Hist.,  vol.  x.  pp.  238, 
480.)  The  same  spirit  of  encroachment  which  rendered  fiefs  hereditary 
led  the  nobles  to  extort  from  their  sovereigns  hereditary  grants  of  offices. 
Many  of  the  great  offices  of  the  crown  became  hereditary  in  most  of  the 
kingdoms  in  Europe ;  and  so  conscious  were  monarchs  of  this  spirit  of 
usurpation  among  the  nobility,  and  so  solicitous  to  guard  against  it, 
that  on  some  occasions  they  obliged  the  persons  whom  they  promoted  to 
any  office  of  dignity  to  grant  an  obligation  that  neither  they  nor  their 
heirs  should  claim  it  as  belonging  to  them  by  hereditary  right.  A  re- 
markable instance  of  this  is  produced,  Me'm.  de  1'Acad.  des  Inscrip., 
torn.  xxx.  p.  595.  Another  occurs  in  the  Thesaur.  Anecdot.,  published 
by  Martene  et  Durand,  voL  i.  p.  873.  This  revolution  in  property 
occasioned  a  change  corresponding  to  it  in  political  government ;  the  great 
vassals  of  the  crown,  as  they  acquired  such  extensive  possessions,  usurped 
a  proportional  degree  of  power,  depressed  the  jurisdiction  of  the  crown, 
and  trampled  on  the  privileges  of  the  people.  It  is  on  account  of  this 
connection  that  it  becomes  an  object  of  importance  in  history  to  trace  the 
progress  of  feudal  property  ;  for  upon  discovering  in  what  state  property 
was  at  any  particular  period  we  may  determine  with  precision  what  was  the 
degree  of  power  possessed  by  the  king  or  by  the  nobility  at  that  juncture. 
One  circumstance  more,  with  respect  to  the  changes  which  property 
underwent,  deserves  attention.  I  have  shown  that  when  the  various 
tribes  of  barbarians  divided  their  conquests  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries 
the  property  which  they  acquired  was  allodial ;  but  in  several  parts  of 
Europe  property  had  become  almost  entirely  feudal  by  the  beginning  of 
the  tenth  century.  The  former  species  of  property  seems  to  be  so  much 
better  and  more  desirable  than  the  latter  that  such  a  change  appears  sur- 
prising, especially  when  we  are  informed  that  allodial  property  was  fre- 
quently converted  into  feudal  by  a  voluntary  deed  of  the  possessor.  The 
motives  which  determined  them  to  a  choice  so  repugnant  to  the  ideas  of 
modern  times  concerning  property  have  been  investigated  and  explained  by 


198  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.          [NOTE  vm. 

M.  dc  Montesquieu,  with  his  usual  discernment  and  accuracy,  lib.  xxxi.  c. 
8.  The  most  considerable  is  that  of  which  we  have  a  hint  in  Lambertu& 
Ardensis,  an  ancient  writer  quoted  by  Du  Cange,  voce  Alodis.  In  those 
times  of  anarchy  and  disorder  which  became  general  in  Europe  after  the 
death  of  Charlemagne,  when  there  was  scarcely  any  union  among  the 
different  members  of  the  community,  and  individuals  were  exposed,  single 
and  undefended  by  government,  to  rapine  and  oppression,  it  became 
necessary  for  every  man  to  have  a  powerful  protector,  under  whose 
banner  he  might  range  himself  and  obtain  security  against  enemies  whom 
singly  he  could  not  oppose.  For  this  reason  he  relinquished  his  allodial 
independence,  and  subjected  himself  to  the  feudal  services,  that  he  might 
find  safety  under  the  patronage  of  some  respectable  superior.  In  some 
parts  oi  Europe  this  change  from  allodial  to  feudal  property  became  so 
general  that  he  who  possessed  land  had  no  longer  any  liberty  of  choice 
left  :  he  was  obliged  to  recognize  some  liege-lord  and  to  hold  of  him. 
Thus,  Beaumanoir  informs  us  that  in  the  counties  of  Clermont  and  Beauvois, 
if  the  lord  or  count  discovered  any  land  within  his  jurisdiction  for  which  no 
service  was  performed,  and  which  paid  to  him  no  taxes  or  customs,  he 
might  instantly  seize  it  as  his  own  ;  for,  says  he,  according  to  our  custom, 
no  man  can  hold  allodial  property.  (Coust,  chap.  24,  p.  123.)  Upon 
the  same  principle  is  founded  a  maxim  which  has  at  length  become 
general  in  the  law  of  France,  Nulle  terre  sans  seigneur.  In  other  provinces 
of  France  allodial  property  seems  to  have  remained  longer  unalienated 
and  to  have  been  more  highly  valued.  A  great  number  of  charters,  con- 
taining grants  or  sales  or  exchanges  of  allodial  lands  in  the  province  of 
Languedoc,  are  published  in  Hist,  gene'r.  de  Langued.,  par.  D.  D.  de  Vic 
et  Vaisette,  torn.  ii.  During  the  ninth,  tenth,  and  great  part  of  the 
eleventh  century  the  property  in  that  province  seems  to  have  been  entirely 
allodial  ;  and  scarcely  any  mention  of  feudal  tenures  occurs  in  the  deeds 
of  that  country.  The  state  of  property  during  these  centuries  seems  to 
have  been  perfectly  similar  in  Catalonia  and  the  country  of  Rousillon,  as 
appears  from  the  original  charters  published  in  the  Appendix  to  Petr.  de 
la  Marca's  treatise  de  Marca  sive  Limite  Hispanico.  Allodial  property 
seems  to  have  continued  in  the  Low  Countries  to  a  period  still  later. 
During  the  eleventh,  twelfth,  and  thirteenth  centuries  this  species  of  pro- 
perty appears  to  have  been  of  considerable  extent.  (Mirsei  Opera  Diplom., 
vol.  i  pp.  34,  74,  75,  83,  817,  296,  842,  847,  578.)  Some  vestiges  of 
allodial  property  appear  there  as  late  as  the  fourteenth  centuiy.  (Ibid., 
p.  218.)  Several  facts  which  prove  that  allodial  property  subsisted  in 
different  parts  of  Europe  long  after  the  introduction  of  feudal  tenuies,,  and 
which  tend  to  illustrate  the  distinction  between  these  two  different  species 
of  possession,  are  produced  by  M.  Houard,  Anciennes  Loix  des  Francois, 
conserve'es  dans  les  Coutumes  Angloises,  vol.  i.  p.  192,  etc.  The  notions 
of  men  with  respect  to  property  vary  according  to  the  diversity  of  their  un- 
derstandings and  the  caprice  of  their  passions.  At  the  same  time  that  some 
persons  were  fond  of  relinquishing  allodial  property  in  order  to  hold  it 
by  feudal  tenure,  others  seem  to  have  been  solicitous  to  convert  their 
fiefs  into  allodial  property.  An  instance  of  this  occurs  in  a  charter  of 
Louis  le  DeTjonnaire,  published  by  Eckharcl,  Commentarii  de  Rebus 
Francise  Orientalis,  vol.  ii  p.  885.  Another  occurs  in  the  year  1299 


NOTE  vin.]          PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  199 

(Reliquiae  MSS.  omnis  ^Evi,  by  Ludwig,  vol.  i.  p.  209)  ;  and  even  one 
as  late  as  the  year  1337  (ibid.,  vol.  vii.  p.  40).  The  same  thing  took 
place  in  the  Low  Countries.  Miraei  Oper.,  i  52. 

In  tracing  these  various  revolutions  of  property  I  have  hitherto 
chiefly  confined  myself  to  what  happened  in  France,  because  the 
ancient  monuments  of  that  nation  have  either  been  more  carefully  pre- 
served, or  have  been  more  clearly  illustrated,  than  those  of  any  people 
in  Europe. 

In  Italy  the  same  revolutions  happened  in  property  and  succeeded  each 
other  in  the  same  order.  There  ia  some  ground,  however,  for  conjectur- 
ing that  allodial  property  continued  longer  in  estimation  among  the  Italians 
than  among  the  French.  It  appears  that  many  of  the  charters  granted 
by  the  emperors  in  the  ninth  century  conveyed  an  allodial  right  to  land. 
(Murat.,  Antiq.  Med.  JEvi,  vol.  i.  p.  575,  etc.)  But  in  the  eleventh 
century  we  find  some  examples  of  persons  who  resigned  their  allodial 
property  and  received  it  back  as  a  feudal  tenure.  (Ibid.,  p.  610,  etc.) 
Muratori  observes  that  the  word  feudum,  which  came  to  be  substituted  in 
place  of  beneficium,  does  not  occur  in  any  authentic  charter  previous  to  the 
eleventh  century.  (Ibid.,  p.  594.)  A  charter  of  King  Robert  of  France, 
A.r>.  1008,  is  the  earliest  deed  in  which  I  have  met  with  the  word  feudvm. 
(Bouquet,  Recueil  des  Historiens  des  Gaules  et  de  la  France,  torn.  x.  p. 
593,  b.)  This  word  occurs,  indeed,  in  an  edict,  A.D.  790,  published  by 
Brussel,  voL  i.  p.  77.  But  the  authenticity  of  that  deed  has  been  called 
in  question,  and  perhaps  the  frequent  use  of  the  word  feudum  in  it  is  an 
additional  reason  for  doing  so.  The  account  which  I  have  given  of  the 
nature  both  of  allodial  and  feudal  possessions  receives  some  confirmation  from 
the  etymology  of  the  words  themselves.  Alodeor  allodium  is  compounded 
of  the  German  particle  an  and  lot,  i.e.,  land  obtained  by  lot  (Wachteri 
Glossar.  Germanicum,  voc.  Allodium,  p.  35.)  It  appears  from  the  authori- 
ties produced  by  him,  and  by  Du  Cange,  voc.  Sors,  that  the  Northern 
nations  divided  the  lands  which  they  had  conquered  in  this  manner. 
Feodum  is  compounded  of  od,  possession  or  estate,  and  feo,  wages,  pay ; 
intimating  that  it  was  stipendiary  and  granted  as  a  recompense  for  service. 
Wachterus,  ibid.,  voc.  Feodum,  p.  441. 

The  progress  of  the  feudal  system  among  the  Germans  was  perfectly 
similar  to  that  which  we  have  traced  in  France.  But  as  the  emperors 
of  Germany,  especially  after  the  imperial  crown  passed  from  the  des- 
cendants of  Charlemagne  to  the  house  of  Saxony,  were  far  superior  to  the 
contemporary  monarchs  of  France  in  abilities,  the  imperial  vassals  did  not 
aspire  so  early  to  independence,  nor  did  they  so  soon  obtain  the  privilege 
of  possessing  their  benefices  by  hereditary  right.  According  to  the  com- 
pilers of  the  Libri  Feudorum,  Conrad  II.,  or  the  Salic,  was  the  first 
emperor  who  rendered  fiefs  hereditary.  (Lib.  i  tit  i.)  Conrad  began  his 
reign  A.D.  1024.  Ludovicus  Pius,  under  whose  reign  grants  of  hereditary 
fiefs  were  frequent  in  France,  succeeded  his  father  A.D.  814.  Not  only 
was  this  innovation  so  much  later  in  being  introduced  among  the  vassals 
of  the  German  emperors,  but  even  after  Conrad  had  established  it  the  law 
continued  favourable  to  the  ancient  practice  ;  and  unless  the  charter  of 
the  vassal  bore  expressly  that  the  fief  descended  to  his  heirs,  it  was  pre- 
jumed  to  be  granted  only  during  life.  (Lib.  Feud.,  ibid.)  Even  after  the 


200  PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  [NOTE  ix. 

alteration  made  by  Conrad,  it  was  not  uncommon  in  Germany  to  grant 
fiefs  only  for  life.  A  charter  of  this  kind  occurs  as  late  as  the  year  1376. 
(Charta,  ap.  Boehmer.,  Princip.  Jur.  Feud.,  p.  361.)  The  transmission  of 
fiefs  to  collateral  and  female  heirs  took  place  very  slowly  among  the 
Germans.  There  is  extant  a  charter,  A.D.  1201,  conveying  the  right  of 
succession  to  females  ;  but  it  is  granted  as  an  extraordinaiy  mark  of  favour 
and  in  reward  of  uncommon  services.  (Boehmer.,  ibid.  p.  365.)  In 
Germany,  as  well  as  in  France  and  Italy,  a  considerable  part  of  the  lands 
continued  to  be  allodial  long  after  the  feudal  mode  of  tenure  was  intro- 
duced. It  appears  from  the  Codex  Diplomaticus  Monasterii  Buch  that 
a  great  part  of  the  lands  in  the  marquisate  of  Misnia  was  still  allodial  as 
late  as  the  thirteenth  century.  (Nos.  31,  36,  37,  46,  etc.,  ap.  Scriptores 
Hist.  German.,  cura  Schoetgenii  et  Kreysigii,  Altenb.,  1755,  vol.  ii.  p. 
183,  etc.)  Allodial  property  seems  to  have  been  common  in  another 
district  of  the  same  province  during  the  same  period.  Reliquiae  Diplo 
maticae  SanctimoniaL,  Beutiz.,  Nos.  17,  36,  58,  ibid.  374,  etc. 

NOTE  IX.— Sect  I.  p.  17. 

As  I  shall  have  occasion,  in  another  note,  to  represent  the  condition  of 
that  part  of  the  people  who  dwelt  in  cities,  I  will  confine  myself  in 
this  to  consider  the  state  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  country.  The  persons 
employed  in  cultivating  the  ground  during  the  ages  under  review  may  be 
divided  into  three  classes  : — 1.  Servi,  or  slaves.  This  seems  to  have  been 
the  most  numerous  class,  and  consisted  either  of  captives  taken  in  war,  or  of 
persons  the  property  in  whom  was  acquired  in  some  one  of  the  various 
methods  enumerated  by  Du  Cange,  voc.  Servus,  vol.  vi.  p.  447.  The 
wretched  condition  of  this  numerous  race  of  men  will  appear  from  several 
circumstances.  1.  Their  masters  had  absolute  dominion  over  their 
persons.  They  had  the  power  of  punishing  their  slaves  capitally,  with- 
out the  intervention  of  any  judge.  This  dangerous  right  they  possessed 
not  only  in  the  more  early  periods  when  their  manners  were  fierce,  but 
it  continued  as  late  as  the  twelfth  century.  (Joach.  Potgiesserus  de 
Statu  Servorum,  Lemgov.,  1736,  4to,  lib.  ii.  cap.  1,  §§  4,  10,  13,  24.) 
Even  after  this  jurisdiction  of  masters  came  to  be  restrained,  the  life  of  a 
slave  was  deemed  to  be  of  so  little  value  that  a  very  slight  compensa- 
tion atoned  for  taking  it  away.  (Idem.  lib.  iii  c.  6.)  If  masters  had 
power  over  the  lives  of  their  slaves,  it  is  evident  that  almost  no  bounds 
would  be  set  to  the  rigour  of  the  punishments  which  they  might  in- 
flict upon  them.  The  codes  of  ancient  laws  prescribed  punishments  for 
the  crimes  of  slaves  different  from  those  which  were  inflicted  on  freemen. 
The  latter  paid  only  a  fine  or  compensation  ;  the  former  were  subjected 
to  corporal  punishments.  The  cruelty  of  these  was,  in  many  instances, 
excessive.  Slaves  might  be  put  to  the  rack  on  very  slight  occasions. 
The  laws  with  respect  to  these  points  are  to  be  found  in  Potgiesserus, 
lib.  iii.  c.  7,  §  2,  and  are  shocking  to  humanity.  2.  If  the  dominion  of 
masters  over  the  lives  and  persons  of  their  slaves  was  thus  extensive, 
it  was  no  less  BO  over  their  actions  and  property.  They  were 
not  originally  permitted  to  marry.  Male  and  female  slaves  were 
allowod  and  even  encouraged,  to  cohabit  together.  But  this  union  was 


NOTE  ix.]  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTEATIONS.  201 

not  considered  as  a  marriage  :  it  was  called  contubernium,  not  nuptiat  <*i 
matrimonium.  (Potgiess.,  lib.  iL  c.  2,  §  1.)  This  notion  was  so  much 
established  that,  during  several  centuries  after  the  barbarous  nations 
embraced  the  Christian  religion,  slaves  who  lived  as  husband  and  wife  were 
not  joined  together  by  any  religious  ceremony,  and  did  not  receive  the 
nuptial  benediction  from  a  priest.  (Ibid.,  §§  10,  11.)  When  this  con- 
junction between  slaves  came  to  be  considered  as  a  lawful  marriage,  they 
were  not  permitted  to  marry  without  the  consent  of  their  master,  and  such 
as  ventured  to  do  so  without  obtaining  that  were  punished  with  great 
severity,  and  sometimes  were  put  to  death.  (Potgiess.,  ibid.,  §  12,  etc.  ; 
Gregor.  Turon.,  Hist,  lib.  v.  c.  3.)  When  the  manners  of  the  European 
nations  became  more  gentle,  and  their  ideas  more  liberal,  slaves  who  married 
without  their  master's  consent  were  subjected  only  to  a  fine.  (Potgiess., 
ibid.,  §  20  ;  Du  Cange,  Gloss,  voc.  Forismaritagium.)  3.  All  the  chil- 
dren of  slaves  were  in  the  same  condition  with  their  parents,  and  became 
the  property  of  the  master.  (Du  Cange,  Gloss.,  voc.  Servus,  vol.  vi.  p.  450  ; 
Murat.,  Antiq.  ItaL,  vol.  L  p.  766.)  4.  Slaves  were  so  entirely  the  pro- 
perty of  their  masters  that  they  could  sell  them  at  pleasure.  While 
domestic  slavery  continued,  property  in  a  slave  was  sold  in  the  same 
manner  with  that  which  a  person  had  in  any  other  movable.  Afterwards 
slaves  became  adscripti  glebce,  and  were  conveyed  by  sale  together  with  the 
farm  or  estate  to  which  they  belonged.  Potgiesserus  has  collected  the 
laws  and  charters  which  illustrate  this  well-known  circumstance  in  the 
condition  of  slaves.  (Lib.  ii.  c.  4.)  5.  Slaves  had  a  title  to  nothing  but 
subsistence  and  clothes  from  their  master  ;  all  the  profits  of  their  labour 
accrued  to  him.  If  a  master,  from  indulgence,  gave  his  slaves  any 
peculium,  or  fixed  allowance  for  their  subsistence,  they  had  no  right  of 
property  in  what  they  saved  out  of  that.  All  that  they  accumulated  be- 
longed to  their  master.  (Potgiess.,  lib.  ii.  c.  10  ;  Murat.,  Antiq.  ItaL, 
vol.  i.  p.  768;  Du  Cange,  voc.  Servus,  vol.  vi.  p.  451.)  Conformably  to  the 
same  principle,  all  the  effects  of  slaves  belonged  to  their  masters  at  their  death, 
and  they  could  not  dispose  of  them  by  testament.  (Potgiess.,  lib.  ii.  c.  11.) 
6.  Slaves  were  distinguished  from  freemen  by  a  peculiar  dress.  Among 
all  the  barbarous  nations,  long  hair  was  a  mark  of  dignity  and  of  free- 
dom ;  slaves  were,  for  that  reason,  obliged  to  shave  their  heads  ;  and  by 
this  distinction,  how  indifferent  soever  it  may  be  in  its  own  nature,  they 
were  reminded  every  moment  of  the  inferiority  of  their  condition. 
(Potgiess.,  lib.  iii  c.  4.)  For  the  same  reason,  it  was  enacted  in  the  laws 
of  almost  all  the  nations  of  Europe  that  no  slave  should  be  admitted  to  give 
evidence  against  a  freeman  in  a  court  of  justice.  Du  Cange,  voc.  Servus, 
vol.  vi  p.  451  ;  Potgiess.,  lib.  iii.  c.  3. 

II.  Villani.  They  were  likewise  adscripti  glebce  or  villas,  from  which 
they  derived  their  name,  and  were  transferable  along  with  it  (Du  Cange, 
voc.  Villanus.)  But  in  this  they  differed  from  slaves,  that  they  paid  a 
fixed  rent  to  their  mastei  for  the  land  which  they  cultivated,  and,  after 
paying  that,  all  the  fruits  of  their  labour  and  industry  belonged  to  them- 
selves in  property.  This  distinction  is  marked  by  Pierre  de  Fontain's 
Conseil.  Vie  de  St.  Louis,  par  Joinville,  p.  119,  6dit.  de  Du  Cange. 
Several  cases  decided  agreeably  to  this  principle  are  mentioned  by  Murat, 
ibid.,  p.  773. 


202  PKOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  [NOTE  ix. 

III.  The  last  class  of  persons  employed  in  agriculture  were  freemen. 
These  are  distinguished  by  various  names  among  the  writers  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  arimanni,  conditionales,  originarii,  tributales,  etc.  These  seem  to 
have  been  persons  who  possessed  some  small  allodial  property  of  their  own. 
and,  besides  that,  cultivated  some  farm  belonging  to  their  more  wealthy 
neighbours,  for  which  they  paid  a  fixed  rent,  and  bound  themselves  like- 
wise to  perform  several  small  services  in  prato  ml  in  messe,  in  aratura  vd 
in  vinea,  such  as  ploughing  a  certain  quantity  of  their  landlord's  ground, 
assisting  him  in  harvest  and  vintage  work,  etc.  The  clearest  proof  of  this 
may  be  found  in  Muratori,  vol.  i.  p.  712,  and  in  Du  Cange,  under  the 
respective  words  above  mentioned.  I  have  not  been  able  to  discover 
whether  these  arimanni,  etc.,  were  removable  at  pleasure,  or  held  their 
farms  by  lease  for  a  certain  number  of  years.  The  former,  if  we  may 
judge  from  the  genius  and  maxims  of  the  age,  seems  to  be  the  most 
probable.  These  persons,  however,  were  considered  as  freemen  in  the 
most  honourable  sense  of  the  word  :  they  enjoyed  all  the  privileges  of  that 
condition,  and  were  even  called  to  serve  in  war ;  an  honour  to  which  no 
slave  was  admitted.  (Murat.,  Antiq.,  vol.  i.  p.  743,  vol.  ii.  p.  446). 
This  account  of  the  condition  of  these  three  different  classes  of  persons  will 
enable  the  reader  to  apprehend  the  full  force  of  an  argument  which  I  shall 
produce  in  confirmation  of  what  I  have  said  in  the  text  concerning  the 
wretched  state  of  the  people  during  the  Middle  Ages.  Notwithstanding 
the  immense  difference  between  the  first  of  these  classes  and  the  third,  such 
was  the  spirit  of  tyranny  which  prevailed  among  the  great  proprietors  of 
lands,  and  so  various  their  opportunities  of  oppressing  those  who  were 
settled  on  their  estates,  and  of  rendering  their  condition  intolerable,  that 
many  freemen,  in  despair,  renounced  their  liberty  and  voluntarily  surren- 
dered themselves  as  slaves  to  their  powerful  masters.  This  they  did  in 
order  that  their  masters  might  become  more  immediately  interested  to 
afford  them  protection,  together  with  the  means  of  subsisting  themselves 
and  their  families.  The  forms  of  such  a  surrender,  or  obnoxiatio,  as  it  was 
then  called,  are  preserved  by  Marculfus,  lib.  ii.  c.  28,  and  by  the  anony- 
mous author  published  by  M.  Bignon  together  with  the  collection  of 
formulae  compiled  by  Marculfus,  c.  16.  In  both,  the  reason  given  for  the 
obnoxiatio  is  the  wretched  and  indigent  condition  of  the  person  who  gives 
up  his  liberty.  It  was  still  more  common  for  freemen  to  surrender  their 
liberty  to  bishops  or  abbots,  that  they  might  partake  of  the  security  which 
the  vassals  and  slaves  of  churches  and  monasteries  enjoyed,  in  consequence 
of  the  superstitious  veneration  paid  to  the  saint  under  whose  immediate 
protection  they  were  supposed  to  be  taken.  (Du  Cange,  voc.  Oblatus, 
vol.  iv.  p.  1286.)  That  condition  must  have  been  miserable  indeed 
which  could  induce  a  freeman  voluntarily  to  renounce  his  liberty  and  to 
give  up  himself  as  a  slave  to  the  disposal  of  another.  The  number  of 
slaves  in  every  nation  of  Europe  was  immense.  The  greater  part  of  the 
inferior  class  of  people  in  France  were  reduced  to  this  state  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  third  race  of  kings.  (L'Esprit  des  Loix,  liv.  xxx.  c.  11.) 
The  same  was  the  case  in  England.  (Brady,  Pref.  to  Gen.  Hist.)  Manj> 
curious  facts  with  respect  to  the  ancient  state  of  villains  or  slaves  in 
England  are  published  in  Observations  on  the  Statutes,  chiefly  the  more 
ancient,  3d  edit.,  p.  269,  etc. 


NOTE  x.j  PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  203 


NOTE  X. — Sect.  I.  p.  19. 

Innumerable  proofs  of  this  might  be  produced.     Many  charters,  granted 
by  persons  of  the  highest  rank,  are  preserved,  from  which  it  appears  that 
they  could  not  subscribe  their  name.      It  was  usual  for  persons  who  could 
not  write  to  make  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  confirmation  of  a  charter. 
Several  of  these  remain  where  kings  and  persons  of  great  eminence  affix 
signum  crucis  manu  propria  pro  ignoratione  literarum.     (Du  Cange,  voc. 
Crux,  vol.  iii.  p.   1191.)      From  this  is  derived  the  phrase  of  signing 
instead  of  subscribing  a  paper.     In  the  ninth  century,  Herbaud,  Comes 
Palatii,  though  supreme  judge  of  the  empire  by  virtue  of  his  office,  could 
not  subscribe  his  name.      (Nouveau  Traitd  de  Diplomatique,  par  deux 
Bene'dictins,  4to,  torn.  ii.  p.  422.)      As  late  as  the  fourteenth  century, 
Du  Guesclin,  constable  of  France,  the  greatest  man  in  the  state,  and  one 
of  the  greatest  men  of  his  age,  could  neither  read  nor  write.     (Ste.  Palaye, 
Mdmoires  sur  1'ancienne  Chevalerie,  tit.  ii.  p.  82.)     Nor  was  this  igno- 
rance confined  to  laymen  :  the  greater  part  of  the  clergy  was  not  many 
degrees  superior  to  them  in  science.     Many  dignified  ecclesiastics  could 
not  subscribe  the  canons  of  those  councils  in  which  they  sat  as  members. 
(Nouv.   Traite  de  Diplom.,  torn.   ii.  p.   424.)       One   of  the   questions 
appointed  by  the  canons  to  be  put  to  persons  who  were  candidates  for 
orders  was  this  :  "  Whether  they  could  read  the  Gospels  and  Epistles,  and 
explain  the  sense  of  them,  at  least  literally  ?  "     (Regino  Prumiensis,  ap. 
Bruck.,  Hist.  Philos.,  v.  iii.  p.  631.)     Alfred  the  Great  complained  that 
from  the  Humber  to  the  Thames  there  was  not  a  priest  who  understood 
the  liturgy  in  his  mother-tongue  or  who  could  translate  the  easiest  piece  of 
Latin,  and  that  from  the  Thames  to  the  sea  the  ecclesiastics  were  still  more 
ignorant.      (Asserus  de  Rebus  gestis  Alfredi,  ap.  Camdeni  Anglica,  etc.,  p. 
25.)     The  ignorance  of  the  clergy  is  quaintly  described  by  an  author  of  the 
Dark  Ages :  "  Potius  dediti  guise  quam  glossse  ;  potius  colligunt  libras  quam 
legunt  libros  ;  libentivis  intuentur  Martham  quam  Marcum  ;  malunt  legere 
in  Salmone  quam  in  Solomone."     (Alanus  de  Art.  Predicat.,  ap.  Lebeuf, 
Dissert,  torn.  ii.  p.  21.)     To  the  obvious  causes  of  such  universal  igno- 
rance, arising  from  the  state  of  government  and  manners,  from  the  seventh 
to  the  eleventh  century,  we  may  add  the  scarcity  of  books  during  that 
period,  and  the  difficulty  of  rendering  them  more  common.     The  Romans 
wrote  their  books  either  on  parchment  or  on  paper  made  of  the  Egyptian 
papyrus.     The  latter,  being  the  cheapest,  was  of  course  the  most  commonly 
used.     But  after  the  Saracens  conquered  Egypt,  in  the  seventh  century, 
the  communication  between  that  country  and  the  people  settled  in  Italy  or 
in  other  parts  of  Europe  was  almost  entirely  broken  off,  and  the  papyrus 
was  no  longer  in  use  among  them.     They  were  obliged,  on  that  account,  to 
write  all  their  books  upon  parchment,  and,  as  the  price  of  that  was  high, 
books  became  extremely  rare  and  of  great  value.     We  may  judge  of  the 
scarcity  of  the  materials  for  writing  them  from  one  circumstance.      There 
still  remain  several  manuscripts  of  the  eighth,  ninth,  and  following  cen- 
turies, written  on  parchment  from  which  some  former  writing  had  been 
erased  in  order  to  substitute  a  new  composition  in  its  place.      In  this 
manner  it  is  probable  that  several  works  of  the  ancients  perished.     A  book 
of  Livy  or  of  Tacitus  might  be  erased  to  make  room  for  the  legendary  tale 


PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  NOTE  xi. 

of  a  saint  OT  the  superstitious  prayers  of  a  missaL  (Mural,  Autiq.  ItaL, 
vol.  iii.  p.  833.)  P.  de  Montfaucon  affirms  that  the  greater  part  of  the 
manuscripts  on  parchment  which  he  has  seen,  those  of  an  ancient  date 
excepted,  are  written  on  parchment  from  which  some  former  treatise  had 
been  erased.  (Mdm.  de  1'Acad.  des  Inscript,  torn.  ix.  p.  325.)  As  the 
want  of  materials  for  writing  is  one  reason  why  so  many  of  the  works  of 
the  ancients  have  perished,  it  accounts  likewise  for  the  small  number  of 
manuscripts  of  any  kind  previous  to  the  eleventh  century,  when  they 
began  to  multiply,  from  a  cause  which  shall  be  mentioned.  (Hist,  litter, 
de  France,  torn.  vi  p.  6.)  Many  circumstances  prove  the  scarcity  of  books 
during  these  ages.  Private  persons  seldom  possessed  any  books  whatever. 
Even  monasteries  of  considerable  note  had  only  one  missal.  (Murat, 
Antiq.,  voL  ix.  p.  789.)  Lupus,  abbot  of  Ferrieres,  in  a  letter  to  the 
pope,  A.D.  855,  beseeches  him  to  lend  him  a  copy  of  Cicero  de  Oratore 
and  Quintilian's  Institutions ;  "  for,"  says  he,  "although  we  have  parts  of 
those  books,  there  is  no  complete  copy  of  them  in  all  France."  (Murat, 
Antiq.,  voL  iii  p.  835.)  The  price  of  books  became  so  high  that  persons 
of  a  moderate  fortune  could  not  afford  to  purchase  them.  The  countess 
of  Anjou  paid  for  a  copy  of  the  Homilies  of  Haimon,  bishop  of  Halber- 
stadt,  two  hundred  sheep,  five  quarters  of  wheat,  and  the  same  quantity  of 
rye  and  millet.  (Histoire  litte'raire  de  France,  par  des  Eeligieux  Be'ne'- 
dictins,  torn,  vii  p.  3.)  Even  so  late  as  the  year  1471,  when  Louis  XI. 
borrowed  the  works  of  Rasis,  the  Arabian  physician,  from  the  faculty  of 
medicine  in  Paris,  he  not  only  deposited  in  pledge  a  considerable  quantity 
of  plate,  but  was  obliged  to  procure  a  nobleman  to  join  with  him  as  surety 
in  a  deed,  binding  himself,  under  a  great  forfeiture,  to  restore  it.  (Gabv. 
Naudd  Addit.  a.  1'Histoire  de  Louys  XI.  par  Comines,  edit  de  Fresnoy, 
torn.  iv.  p.  281.)  Many  curious  circumstances  with  respect  to  the  extrava- 
gant price  of  books  in  the  Middle  Ages  are  collected  by  that  industrious 
compiler,  to  whom  I  refer  such  of  my  readers  as  deem  this  small  branch 
of  literary  history  an  object  of  curiosity.  When  any  person  made  a 
present  of  a  book  to  a  church  or  monastery,  in  which  were  the  only  libra- 
ries during  several  ages,  it  was  deemed  a  donative  of  such  value  that  he 
offered  it  on  the  altar  pro  remedio  animce  SUCK,  in  order  to  obtain  the  forgive- 
ness of  his  sins.  (Murat.,  voL  iii  p.  836 ;  Hist,  litter,  de  France,  torn. 
vi  p.  6 ;  Nouv.  Trait  de  Diplomat,  par  deux  Be'nedictins,  4to,  torn,  i  p. 
481.)  In  the  eleventh  century  the  art  of  making  paper,  in  the  manner 
now  become  universal,  was  invented ;  by  means  of  that,  not  only  the 
number  of  manuscripts  increased,  but  the  study  of  the  sciences  was  won- 
derfully facilitated.  (Murat,  ib.  p.  871.)  The  invention  of  the  art  of 
making  paper,  and  the  invention  of  the  art  of  printing,  are  two  consider- 
able events  in  literary  history.  It  is  remarkable  that  the  former  preceded 
the  first  dawning  of  letters  and  improvement  in  knowledge  towards  the 
close  of  the  eleventh  century  ;  the  latter  ushered  in  the  light  which 
spread  over  Europe  at  the  era  of  the  Reformation. 

NOTE  XL — Sect  L  p.  20. 

All  the  religious  maxims  and  practices  of  the  Dark  Ages  are  a  proof  of 
this.      I  shall  produce  one  remarkable  testimony  in  confirmation  of  it. 


NOTE  xii.]  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  205 

from  an  author  canonised  by  the  Church  of  Rome,  St  Eloy,  or  Egidius, 
bishop  of  Noyon,  in  the  seventh  century.  "  He  is  a  good  Christian  who 
comes  frequently  to  church ;  who  presents  the  oblation  which  is  offered  to 
God  upon  the  altar ;  who  doth  not  taste  the  fruits  of  his  own  industry 
until  he  has  consecrated  a  part  of  them  to  God ;  who,  when  the  holy  festi- 
vals approach,  lives  chastely  even  with  his  own  wife  during  several  clays, 
that  with  a  safe  conscience  he  may  draw  near  the  altar  of  God  ;  and  who, 
in  the  lust  place,  can  repeat  the  Creed  and  the  Lord's  Prayer.  Redeem 
then  your  souls  from  destruction  while  you  have  the  means  in  your  power  : 
offer  presents  and  tithes  to  churchmen  ;  come  more  frequently  to  church  ; 
humbly  implore  the  patronage  of  the  saints  ;  for,  if  you  observe  these 
things,  you  may  come  with  security  in  the  day  of  retribution  to  the  tribunal 
of  the  Eternal  Judge,  and  say,  '  Give  to  us,  0  Lord,  for  we  have  given 
unto  thee.'  "  (Dacherii  Spicilegium  Vet  Script,  vol.  ii.  p.  94.)  The 
learned  and  judicious  translator  of  Dr.  Mosheim's  Ecclesiastical  History,  to 
one  of  whose  additional  notes  I  am  indebted  for  my  knowledge  of  this 
passage,  subjoins  a  very  proper  reflection  :  "  We  see  here  a  large  and 
ample  description  of  a  good  Christian,  in  which  there  is  not  the  least 
mention  of  the  love  of  God,  resignation  to  his  will,  obedience  to  his  laws, 
or  of  justice,  benevolence,  and  charity  towards  men."  Mosh.  Eccles. 
Hist,  vol.  i.  p.  324. 

NOTE  XII.— Sect  I.  p.  20. 

That  infallibility  in  all  its  determinations,  to  which  the  Church  of  Rome 
pretends,  has  been  attended  with  one  unhappy  consequence.  As  it  is 
impossible  to  relinquish  any  opinion  or  to  alter  any  practice  which  has 
been  established  by  authority  that  cannot  err,  all  its  institutions  and  cere- 
monies must  be  immutable  and  everlasting,  and  the  Church  must  continue 
to  observe  in  enlightened  times  those  rites  which  were  introduced  during 
the  ages  of  darkness  and  credulity.  What  delighted  and  edified  the  latter 
must  disgust  and  shock  the  former.  Many  of  the  rites  observed  in  the 
Romish  Church  appear  manifestly  to  have  been  introduced  by  a  supersti- 
tion of  the  lowest  and  most  illiberal  species.  Many  of  them  were  bor- 
rowed, with  little  variation,  from  the  religious  ceremonies  established 
among  the  ancient  heathens.  Some  were  so  ridiculous  that,  if  every  age 
did  not  furnish  instances  of  the  fascinating  influence  of  superstition,  as 
well  as  of  the  whimsical  forms  which  it  assumes,  it  must  appear  incredible 
that  they  should  have  been  ever  received  or  tolerated.  In  several  churches 
of  France  they  celebrated  a  festival  in  commemoration  of  the  Virgin  Mary's 
Flight  into  Egypt  It  was  called  the  Feast  of  the  Asa.  A  young  girl, 
richly  dressed,  with  a  child  in  her  arms,  was  set  upon  an  ass  superbly 
caparisoned.  The  ass  was  led  to  the  altar  in  solemn  procession.  High 
mass  was  said  with  great  pomp.  The  ass  was  taught  to  kneel  at  proper 
places  ;  a  hymn  no  less  childish  than  impious  was  sung  in  his  praise  ;  and, 
when  the  ceremony  was  ended,  the  priest,  instead  of  the  usual  words  with 
which  he  dismissed  the  people,  brayed  three  times  like  an  ass,  and  the 
people,  instead  of  the  usual  response,  "  We  bless  the  Lord,"  brayed  three 
times  in  the  same  manner.  (Du  Cange,  voc.  Festum,  voL  iii  p.  424.) 
This  ridiculous  ceremony  was  not,  like  the  festival  of  fools,  and  some  other 
pageants  of  those  ages,  a  mere  farcical  entertainment  exhibited  in  a  church. 


PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTEATIONS.          [NOTE  xni. 

and  mingled,  as  was  then  the  custom,  with  an  imitation  of  some  religious 
rites  :  it  was  an  act  of  devotion,  performed  by  the  ministers  of  religion  and 
by  the  authority  of  the  Church.  However,  as  this  practice  did  not  prevail 
universally  in  the  Catholic  Church,  its  absurdity  contributed  at  last  to 
abolish  it. 

NOTE  XIII. —Sect.  I.  p.  25. 

As  there  is  no  event  in  the  history  of  mankind  more  singular  than  that 
of  the  crusades,  every  circumstance  that  tends  to  explain  or  to  give  any 
rational  account  of  this  extraordinary  frenzy  of  the  human  mind  is  inter- 
esting. I  have  asserted  in  the  text  that  the  minds  of  men  were  prepared 
gradually  for  the  amazing  effort  which  they  made  in  consequence  of  the 
exhortations  of  Peter  the  Hermit,  by  several  occurrences  previous  to  his 
time.  A  more  particular  detail  of  this  curious  and  obscure  part  of  history 
may  perhaps  appear  to  some  of  my  readers  to  be  of  importance.  That  the 
end  of  the  world  was  expected  about  the  close  of  the  tenth  and  beginning 
of  the  eleventh  century,  and  that  this  occasioned  a  general  alarm,  is  evident 
from  the  authors  to  whom  I  have  referred  in  the  text.  This  belief  was  so 
universal  and  so  strong  that  it  mingled  itself  with  civil  transactions.  Many 
charters  in  the  latter  part  of  the  tenth  century  begin  in  this  manner : 
"  Appropinquante  mundi  termino,"  etc.  As  the  end  of  the  world  is  now 
at  hand,  and  by  various  calamities  and  judgments  the  signs  of  its  approach 
are  now  manifest.  (Hist,  de  Langued.,  par  D.  D.  de  Vic  et  Vaisette,  torn, 
ii.  ;  Preuves,  pp.  86,  89,  90,  117,  158,  etc.).  One  effect  of  this  opinion 
was  that  a  great  number  of  pilgrims  resorted  to  Jerusalem,  with  a  resolu- 
tion to  die  there,  or  to  wait  the  coming  of  the  Lord ;  kings,  earls,  mar- 
quises, bishops,  and  even  a  great  number  of  women,  besides  persons  of  an 
inferior  rank,  flocked  to  the  Holy  Land.  (Glaber.  Rodulph.,  Hist.,  apud 
Bouquet,  Recueil,  torn.  x.  pp.  50,  52.)  Another  historian  mentions  a  vast 
cavalcade  of  pilgrims  who  accompanied  the  count  of  Angouleme  to  Jeru- 
salem in  the  year  1026.  (Chronic.  Ademari,  ibid.,  p.  162.)  Upon  their 
return,  these  pilgrims  filled  Europe  with  lamentable  accounts  of  the  state 
of  Christians  in  the  Holy  Land.  (Willerm.  Tyr.,  Hist,  ap.  Gest.  Dei  per 
Franc,  vol.  ii  p.  636 ;  Guibert.  Abbat.,  Hist.,  ibid.,  vol.  i.  p.  476.) 
Besides  this,  it  was  usual  for  many  of  the  Christian  inhabitants  of  Jeru- 
salem, as  well  as  of  other  cities  in  tlie  East,  to  travel  as  mendicants  through 
Europe,  and,  by  describing  the  wretched  condition  of  the  professors  of  the 
Christian  faith  under  the  dominion  of  infidels,  to  extort  charity,  and  to 
excite  zealous  persons  to  make  some  attempt  in  order  to  deliver  them  from 
oppression.  (Baldrici  Archiepiscopi  Histor.,  ap.  Gesta  Dei,  etc.,  vol.  i.  p. 
86.)  In  the  year  986,  Gerbert,  archbishop  of  Ravenna,  afterwards  Pope 
Silvester  IT.,  addressed  a  letter  to  all  Christians  in  the  name  of  the  church 
of  Jerusalem.  It  is  eloquent  and  pathetic,  and  contains  a  formal  exhorta- 
tion to  take  arms  against  the  pagan  oppressors  in  order  to  rescue  the  holy 
city  from  their  yoke.  (Gerberti  Epistola3,  ap.  Bouquet,  Recueil,  torn.  x. 
p.  426.)  In  consequence  of  this  spirited  call,  some  subjects  of  the  republic 
of  Pisa  equipped  a  fleet  and  invaded  the  territories  of  the  Mahometans  in 
Syria.  (Murat,  Script.  Rer.  Italic.,  vol.  iii.  p.  400.)  The  alarm  was 
taken  in  the  East,  and  an  opinion  prevailed,  A.D.  1010,  that  all  the  forces 
of  Christendom  were  to  unite  in  order  to  drive  the  Mahometans  out  of 


xiii.]       PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  207 

Palestine.  (Chron.  Ademari,  ap.  Bouquet,  torn.  x.  p.  152.)  It  is  evident 
from  all  these  particulars  that  the  ideas  which  led  the  crusaders  to  under- 
take their  wild  enterprise  did  not  arise,  according  to  the  description  of 
many  authors,  from  a  sudden  fit  of  frantic  enthusiasm,  but  were  gradually 
formed  ;  so  that  the  universal  concourse  to  the  standard  of  the  cross,  when 
erected  by  Urban  II.,  will  appear  less  surprising. 

If  the  various  circumstances  which  I  have  enumerated  ra  this  note,  as 
well  as  in  the  history,  are  sufficient  to  account  for  the  ardour  with  which 
such  vast  numbers  engaged  in  such  a  dangerous  undertaking,  the  extensive 
privileges  and  immunities  granted  to  the  persons  who  assumed  the  cross 
serve  to  account  for  the  long  continuance  of  this  spirit  in  Europe.  1.  They 
were  exempted  from  prosecutions  on  account  of  debt  during  the  time  of 
their  being  engaged  in  this  holy  service.  (Du  Cange,  voc.  Grucis  Privile- 
gium,  vol.  ii.  p.  1194.)  2.  They  were  exempted  from  paying  interest  for 
the  money  which  they  had  borrowed  in  order  to  fit  them  for  this  sacred 
warfare.  (Ibid.)  3.  They  were  exempted  either  entirely,  or  at  least 
during  a  certain  time,  from  the  payment  of  taxes.  (Ibid. ;  Ordonnances 
des  Rois  de  France,  torn.  i  p.  33.)  4.  They  might  alienate  their  lands 
without  the  consent  of  the  superior  lord  of  whom  they  held.  (Ibid.) 
5.  Their  persons  and  effects  were  taken  under  the  protection  of  St.  Peter, 
and  the  anathemas  of  the  Church  were  denounced  against  all  who  should 
molest  them,  or  carry  on  any  quarrel  or  hostility  against  them,  during 
their  absence  on  account  of  the  holy  war.  (Du  Cange,  ibid.  ;  Guibertus 
Abbas,  ap.  Bongars.,  vol.  i  pp.  480,  482.)  6.  They  enjoyed  all  the 
privileges  of  ecclesiastics,  and  were  not  bound  to  plead  in  any  civil  court, 
but  were  declared  subject  to  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  alone.  (Du  Cange, 
ibid.  ;  Ordon.  des  Rois,  torn,  i  pp.  34,  i74.)  7.  They  obtained  a  plenary 
remission  of  all  their  sins,  and  the  gates  of  heaven  were  set  open  to  them, 
without  requiring  any  other  proof  of  their  penitence  but  their  engaging  in 
this  expedition ;  and  thus  by  gratifying  their  favourite  passion,  the  love 
of  war,  they  secured  to  themselves  immunities  which  were  not  usually 
obtained  but  by  paying  large  sums  of  money  or  by  undergoing  painful 
penances.  (Guibertus  Abbas,  p.  480.)  When  we  behold  the  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  powers  vying  with  each,  other  and  straining  their  invention 
in  order  to  devise  expedients  for  encouraging  and  adding  strength  to  the 
spirit  of  superstition,  can  we  be  surprised  that  it  should  become  so  general 
as  to  render  it  infamous,  and  a  mark  of  cowardice,  to  decline  engaging  in 
the  holy  war?  (Willerm,  Tyriensis,  ap.  Bongars.,  voL  ii  p.  641.)  The 
histories  of  the  crusades  written  by  modern  authors,  who  are  apt  to  substi- 
tute the  ideas  and  maxims  of  their  own  age  in  the  place  of  those  which 
influenced  the  persons  whose  actions  they  attempt  to  relate,  convey  a  very 
imperfect  notion  of  the  spirit  at  that  time  predominant  in  Europe.  The 
original  historians,  who  were  animated  themselves  with  the  same  passions 
which  possessed  their  contemporaries,  exhibit  to  us  a  more  striking  picture 
of  the  times  and  manners  which  they  describe.  The  enthusiastic  rapture 
with  which  they  account  for  the  effects  of  the  pope's  discourse  in  (lie 
Council  of  Clermont,  the  exultation  with  which  they  mention  the  numbers 
who  devoted  themselves  to  this  holy  warfare,  the  confidence  with  -which 
they  express  their  reliance  on  the  divine  protection,  the  ecstacy  of  joy  with 
which  they  describe  their  taking  possession  of  the  holy  city,  will  enable 


208  PKOOES  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  [NOTE  xm. 

us  to  conceive  in  some  degree  the  extravagance  of  that  zeal  which  agitated 
the  minds  of  men  with  such  violence,  and  will  suggest  as  many  singular 
reflections  to  a  philosopher  as  any  occurrence  in  the  history  of  mankind, 
It  is  unnecessary  to  select  the  particular  passages  in  the  several  historians 
which  confirm  this  observation.  But,  lest  those  authors  may  be  suspected 
of  adorning  their  narrative  with  any  exaggerated  description,  I  shall  appeal 
to  one  of  the  leaders  who  conducted  the  enterprise.  There  is  extant  a 
letter  from  Stephen,  the  earl  of  Chartres  and  Blois,  to  Adela,  his  wife,  in 
which  he  gives  her  an  account  of  the  progress  of  the  crusaders.  He 
describes  the  crusaders  as  the  chosen  army  of  Christ,  as  the  servants  and 
soldiers  of  God,  as  men  who  marched  under  the  immediate  protection  of 
the  Almighty,  being  conducted  by  his  hand  to  victory  and  conquest.  He 
speaks  of  the  Turks  as  accursed,  sacrilegious,  and  devoted  by  Heaven  to 
destruction  ;  and  when  he  mentions  the  soldiers  in  the  Christian  army  who 
had  died  or  were  killed,  he  is  confident  that  their  souls  were  admitted 
directly  into  the  joys  of  Paradise.  Dacherii  Spicilegium,  vol.  iv.  p.  257. 
The  expense  of  conducting  numerous  bodies  of  men  from  Europe  to 
Asia  must  have  been  excessive,  and  the  difficulty  of  raising  the  necessary 
sums  must  have  been  proportionally  great,  during  ages  when  the  public 
revenues  in  every  nation  of  Europe  were  extremely  small.  Some  account 
is  preserved  of  the  expedients  employed  by  Humbert  II.,  Dauphin  of 
Vienne,  in  order  to  levy  the  money  requisite  towards  ecpaipping  him  for 
the  crusade,  A.D.  1346.  These  I  shall  mention,  as  they  tend  to  show  the 
considerable  influence  which  the  crusades  had  both  on  the  state  of  property 
and  of  civil  government.  1.  He  exposed  to  sale  part  of  his  domains; 
and,  as  the  price  was  destined  for  such  a  sacred  service,  he  obtained  the 
consent  of  the  French  king,  of  whom  these  lands  were  held,  ratifying  the 
alienation.  (Hist,  de  Dauphine",  torn.  i.  pp.  332,  335.)  2.  He  issued  a 
proclamation  in  which  he  promised  to  grant  new  privileges  to  the  nobles, 
as  well  as  new  immunities  to  the  cities  and  towns  in  his  territories,  in 
consideration  of  certain  sums  which  they  were  instantly  to  pay  on  that 
account.  (Ibid.,  torn.  ii.  p.  512.)  Many  of  the  charters  of  community, 
which  I  shall  mention  in  another  note,  were  obtained  in  this  manner. 
3.  He  exacted  a  contribution  towards  defraying  the  charges  of  the  expe- 
dition from  all  his  subjects,  whether  ecclesiastics  or  laymen,  who  did  not 
accompany  him  in  person  to  the  East.  (Ibid.,  torn.  i.  p.  335.)  4.  He 
appropriated  a  considerable  part  of  his  usual  revenues  for  the  support  of 
the  troops  to  be  employed  in  this  service.  (Ibid.,  torn.  ii.  p.  518.) 
5.  He  exacted  considerable  sums,  not  only  of  the  Jews  settled  in  his 
dominions,  but  also  of  the  Lombards  and  other  bankers  who  had  fixed 
their  residence  there.  (Ibid.,  torn.  i.  p.  338,  torn.  ii.  p.  528.)  Notwith- 
standing the  variety  of  these  resources,  the  dauphin  was  involved  in  such 
expense  by  this  expedition  that  on  his  return  he  was  obliged  to  make  new 
demands  on  his  subjects  and  to  pillage  the  Jews  by  fresh  exactions.  (Ibid  , 
torn.  i.  pp.  344,  347.)  When  the  count  de  Foix  engaged  in  the  first 
crusade,  he  raised  the  money  necessary  for  defraying  the  expenses  of  that 
expedition  by  alienating  part  of  his  territories.  (Hist,  de  Langued.,  pat 
D.  D.  de  Vic  et  Vaisette,  torn.  ii.  p.  287.)  In  like  manner  Baldwin,  count 
of  Hainault,  mortgaged  or  sold  a  considerable  portion  of  his  dominions  to 
khe  bishop  of  Liege,  A.D.  1096.  (Du  Mont,  Corps  Diplomatique,  torn,  i: 


KOTE  xiv.]  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  2u9 

p.  59.)  At  a  later  period,  Baldwin,  count  of  Namur,  sold  part  of  his* 
estate  to  a  monastery,  when  he  intended  to  assume  the  cross,  A.D.  1239. 
Miraei  Oper.,  L  p.  313. 

NOTE  XIV.— Sect  L  p.  29. 

The  usual  method  of  forming  an  opinion  concerning  the  comparative 
state  of  manners  in  two  different  nations  is  by  attending  to  the  facts  which 
historians  relate  concerning  each  of  them.  Various  passages  might  be 
selected  from  the  Byzantine  historians,  describing  the  splendour  and  mag- 
nificence of  the  Greek  empire.  P.  de  Montfaucon  has  produced  from  the 
writings  of  St.  Chrysostom  a  very  full  account  of  the  elegance  and  luxury 
of  the  Greeks  in  his  age.  That  father,  in  his  sermons,  enters  into  such 
minute  details  concerning  the  manners  and  customs  of  his  contemporaries 
as  appear  strange  in  discourses  from  the  pulpit.  P.  de  Montfaucon  has 
collected  these  descriptions  and  ranged  them  under  different  heads.  The 
court  of  the  more  early  Greek  emperors  seems  to  have  resembled  those  of 
Eastern  monarchs,  both  in  magnificence  and  in  corruption  of  manners. 
The  emperors  in  the  eleventh  century,  though  inferior  in  power,  did  not 
yield  to  them  in  ostentation  and  splendour.  (Me'moires  de  1'Acad.  dea 
Inscript.,  torn.  xx.  p.  197.)  But  we  may  decide  concerning  the  compara- 
tive state  of  manners  in  the  Eastern  empire,  and  among  the  nations  in  the 
West  of  Europe,  by  another  method,  which  if  not  more  certain  is  at  least 
more  striking.  As  Constantinople  was  the  place  of  rendezvous  for  all  the 
armies  of  the  crusaders,  this  brought  together  the  people  of  the  East  and 
West  as  to  one  great  interview.  There  are  extant  several  contemporary 
authors,  both  awiong  the  Greeks  and  Latins,  who  were  witnesses  of  this 
singular  congress  of  people-  formerly  strangers  in  a  great  measure  to  each 
other.  They  describe  with  simplicity  and  candour  the  impression  which 
that  new  spectacle  made  upon  their  own  minds.  This  may  be  considered 
as  the  most  lively  and  just  picture  of  the  real  character  and  manners  of 
each  people.  When  the  Greeks  speak  of  the  Franks,  they  describe  them 
as  barbarians,  fierce,  illiterate,  impetuous,  and  savage.  They  assume  a 
f^ne  of  superiority,  as  a  more  polished  people,  acquainted  with  the  arts 
L.  b  of  government  and  of  elegance,  of  which  the  other  was  ignorant.  It 
is  thus  Anna  Comnena  describes  the  manners  of  the  Latins.  (Alexias, 
pp.  224,  231,  237,  ap.  Byz.  Script.,  vol.  ix.)  She  always  views  them 
with  contempt  as  a  rude  people,  the  very  mention  of  whose  names  was 
sufficient  to  contaminate  the  beauty  and  elegance  of  history  (p.  229). 
Nicetas  Choniatas  inveighs  against  them  with  still  more  violence,  and 
gives  an  account  of  their  ferocity  and  devastations  in  terms  not  unlike 
those  which  preceding  historians  had  employed  in  describing  the  incursions 
of  the  Goths  and  Vandals.  (Nicet.  Chon.,  ap.  Byz.  Script.,  vol.  iii. 
p.  302,  etc.)  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Latin  historians  were  struck 
with  astonishment  at  the  magnificence,  wealth,  and  elegance  which  they 
discovered  in  the  Eastern  empire.  "  Oh,  what  a  vast  city  is  Constanti- 
nople ! "  exclaims  Fulcherius  Carnotensis  when  he  first  beheld  it,  "  and 
how  beautiful  !  How  many  monasteries  are  there  in  it,  and  how  many 
palaces  built  with  wonderful  art  !  How  many  manufactures  are  there  in 
the  city  amazing  to  behold  !  It  would  be  astonishing  to  relate  how  it 
abounds  with  all  good  things,  with  gold,  silver,  and  stuffs  of  varion' 
VOL.  i.  f 


210  PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  [NOTE  xv. 

kinds ;  for  every  hour  ships  arrive  in  its  port  laden  with  all  things  neces- 
sary for  the  use  of  man."  (Fulcher.,  ap.  Bongars.,  vol.  i.  p.  386.) 
Willermus,  archbishop  of  Tyre,  the  most  intelligent  historian  of  the 
Crusades,  seems  to  be  fond,  on  every  occasion,  of  describing  the  elegance 
and  splendour  of  the  court  of  Constantinople,  and  adds  that  what  he  and 
his  countrymen  observed  there  exceedetl  any  idea  which  they  could  have 
formed  of  it,  "  nostrarum  enim  rerum  modum  et  dignitatem  excedunt." 
(Willerm.  Tyr.,  ap.  Bong.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  657,  664.)  Benjamin  the  Jew,  of 
Tudela  in  Navarre,  who  began  his  travels  A.D.  1173,  appears  to  have  been 
equally  astonished  at  the  magnificence  of  that  city,  and  gives  a  description 
of  its  splendour  in  terms  of  high  admiration.  (Benj.  TudeL,  ap.  Les 
Voyages  faits  dans  les  12e,  13*",  etc.  Siecles,  par  Bergeron,  p.  10,  etc.) 
Guntherus,  a  French  monk,  who  wrote  a  history  of  the  conquest  of  Con- 
stantinople by  the  crusaders  in  the  thirteenth  century,  speaks  of  the 
magnificence  of  that  city  in  the  same  tone  of  admiration :  "  Structuram 
autem  sedificiorum  in  corpore  civitatis,  in  ecclesiis  videlicet,  et  turribus, 
et  in  domibus  magnatorum,  vix  ullus  vel  describere  potest,  vel  credere 
describenti,  nisi  qui  ea  oculata  fide  cognoverit."  (Hist.  Constantinop.,  ap. 
Canisii  Lectiones  Antiquas,  fol.,  Antw.,  1725,  vol.  iv.  p.  14.)  Geoffrey 
de  Villehardouin,  a  nobleman  of  high  rank,  and  accustomed  to  all  the 
magnificence  then  known  in  the  West,  describes  in  similar  terms  the 
astonishment  and  admiration  of  such  of  his  fellow-soldiers  as  beheld  Con- 
stantinople for  the  first  time.  "  They  could  not  have  believed,"  says  he, 
"  that  there  was  a  city  so  beautiful  and  so  rich  in  the  whole  world.  When 
they  viewed  its  high  walls,  its  lofty  towers,  its  rich  palaces,  its  superb 
churches,  all  appeared  so  great  that  they  could  have  formed  no  conception 
of  this  sovereign  city  unless  they  had  seen  it  with  their  own  eyes." 
(Histoire  de  la  Conquete  de  Constantinople,  p.  49.)  From  these  undis- 
guised representations  of  their  own  feelings  it  is  evident  that  to  the  Greeks 
the  crusaders  appeared  to  be  a  race  of  rude,  unpolished  barbarians  ; 
whereas  the  latter,  how  much  soever  they  might  contemn  the  unwarlike 
character  of  the  former,  could  not  help  regarding  them  as  far  superior  to 
themselves  in  elegance  and  arts.  That  the  state  of  government  and  manners 
was  much  more  improved  in  Italy  than  in  the  other  countries  of  Europe 
is  evident  not  only  from  the  facts  recorded  in  history,  but  it  appears  that 
the  more  intelligent  leaders  of  the  crusaders  were  struck  with  the  differ- 
ence. Jacobus  de  Vitriaco,  a  French  historian  of  the  holy  war,  makes  an 
elaborate  panegyric  on  the  character  and  manners  of  the  Italians.  He 
views  them  as  a  more  polished  people,  and  particularly  celebrates  them 
for  their  love  of  liberty,  and  civil  wisdom  :  "In  consiliis  circumspecti,  in 
re  suA  publica  procurand£  diligentes  et  studiosi ;  sibi  in  posterum  provi- 
dentes ;  aliis  subjici  renuentes ;  ante  omnia  libertatem  sibi  defendentes  ; 
sub  uno  quern  eligunt  capitaneo,  communitati  suse  jura  et  instituta  die-- 
tan tes  et  similiter  observantes."  Histor.  Hierosol.,  ap.  Gesta  Dei  pet 
Francos,  voL  ii.  p.  1085. 

NOTE  XV.— Sect.  I.  p.  32. 

The  different  steps  taken  by  the  cities  of  Italy  in  order  to  extend  their 
power  and  dominions  are  remarkable.  As  soon  as  their  liberties  were 
established  and  they  began  to  feel  their  own  importance,  they  endeavoured 


NOTE  xv.]  PfiOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  211 

to  render  themselves  masters  of  the  territory  round  their  walls.  Under 
the  Romans,  when  cities  enjoyed  municipal  privileges  and  jurisdiction,  the 
circumjacent  lands  belonged  to  each  town  and  were  the  property  of  the 
community.  But,  as  it  was  not  the  genius  of  the  feudal  policy  to  encourage 
cities  or  to  show  any  regard  for  their  possessions  and  immunities,  these 
lands  had  been  seized  and  shared  among  the  conquerors.  The  barons  to 
whom  they  were  granted  erected  their  castles  almost  at  the  gates  of  the 
city,  and  exercised  their  jurisdiction  there.  Under  pretence  of  recovering 
their  ancient  property,  many  of  the  cities  in  Italy  attacked  these  trouble- 
some neighbours,  and,  dispossessing  them,  annexed  their  territories  to  the 
communities,  and  made  thereby  a  considerable  addition  to  their  power. 
Several  instances  of  this  occur  in  the  eleventh  and  beginning  of  the  twelfth 
centuries.  (Murat.,  Antiq.  ItaL,  voL  iv.  p.  159,  etc.)  Their  ambition 
increasing  together  with  their  power,  the  cities  afterwards  attacked  several 
barons  situated  at  a  greater  distance  from  their  walls,  and  obliged  them  to 
engage  that  they  would  become  members  of  their  community  ;  that  they 
would  take  the  oath  of  fidelity  to  their  magistrates  ;  that  they  would 
subject  their  lands  to  all  burdens  and  taxes  imposed  by  common  consent ; 
that  they  would  defend  the  community  against  all  its  enemies  ;  and 
that  they  would  reside  within  the  city  during  a  certain  specified  time  in 
each  year.  (Murat.,  ibid.,  p.  163.)  This  subjection  of  the  nobility  to 
the  municipal  government  established  in  cities  became  almost  universal, 
and  was  often  extremely  grievous  to  persons  accustomed  to  consider  them- 
selves as  independent  Otto  Frisingensis  thus  describes  the  state  of  Italy 
under  Frederic  I.  :  "  The  cities  so  much  affect  liberty,  and  are  so  solicitous 
to  avoid  the  insolence  of  power,  that  almost  all  of  them  have  thrown  off 
every  other  authority  and  are  governed  by  their  own  magistrates.  Inso- 
much that  all  that  country  is  now  filled  with  free  cities,  most  of  which 
have  compelled  their  bishops  to  reside  within  their  walls,  and  there  is 
scarcely  any  nobleman,  how  great  soever  his  power  may  be,  who  is  not 
subject  to  the  laws  and  government  of  some  city."  (De  Gestis  Frider.  I. 
Imp.,  lib.  ii.  c.  13,  p.  453.)  In  another  place  he  observes  of  the  marquis 
of  Montferrat  that  he  was  almost  the  only  Italian  baron  who  had  preserved 
his  independence  and  had  not  become  subject  to  the  laws  of  any  city.  (See 
also  Muratori,  Antichita  Estensi,  voL  i.  pp.  411,  412.)  That  state  into 
which  some  of  the  nobles  were  compelled  to  enter,  others  embraced  from 
choice.  They  observed  the  high  degree  of  security,  as  well  as  of  credit 
and  estimation,  which  the  growing  wealth  and  dominion  of  the  great  com- 
munities procured  to  all  the  members  of  them.  They  were  desirous  to 
partake  of  these  and  to  put  themselves  under  such  powerful  protection. 
With  this  view  they  voluntarily  became  citizens  of  the  towns  to  which 
their  lands  were  most  contiguous,  and,  abandoning  their  ancient  castles, 
took  up  their  residence  in  the  cities,  at  least  during  part  of  the  year. 
Several  deeds  are  still  extant  by  which  some  of  the  most  illustrious 
families  in  Italy  are  associated  as  citizens  of  different  cities.  (Murat., 
ibid.,  p.  165,  etc.)  A  charter  by  which  Atto  de  Macerata  is  admitted 
as  a  citizen  of  Osima,  A.D.  1198,  in  the  March  a  di  Ancona,  is  still  extant. 
In  this  he  stipulates  that  he  will  acknowledge  himself  to  be  a  burgess 
of  that  community  ;  that  he  will  to  the  utmost  of  his  power  promote 
its  honour  and  welfare ;  that  he  will  obev  its  magistrates ;  that  he  will 

i-  2 


212  PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  [NOTE  xv. 

enter  into  no  league  with  its  enemies  ;  that  he  will  reside  in  the  town 
during  two  months  in  every  year,  or  for  a  longer  time,  if  required  by  the 
magistrates.  The  community,  on  the  other  hand,  take  him,  his  family, 
and  Mends,  under  their  protection,  and  engage  to  defend  him  against  every 
enemy.  (Fr.  Ant.  Zacharias,  Anecdota  Medii  Mvi,  Aug.  Taur.,  1755, 
t'ol.,  p.  66.)  This  privilege  was  deemed  so  important  that  not  only  lay- 
men, hut  ecclesiastics  of  the  highest  rank,  condescended  to  be  adopted  as 
members  of  the  great  communities,  in  hopes  of  enjoying  the  safety  and 
dignity  which  that  condition  conferred.  (Murat.,  ibid.,  p.  179.)  Before 
the  institution  of  communities,  persons  of  noble  birth  had  no  other  residence 
but  their  castles.  They  kept  their  petty  courts  there  ;  and  the  cities  were 
deserted,  having  hardly  any  inhabitants  but  slaves  or  persons  of  low  con- 
dition. But,  in  consequence  of  the  practice  which  I  have  mentioned, 
cities  not  only  became  more  populous,  but  were  filled  with  inhabitants  of 
better  rank,  and  a  custom  which  still  subsists  in  Italy  was  then  introduced, 
that  all  families  of  distinction  reside  more  constantly  in  the  great  towns 
than  is  usual  in  other  parts  of  Europe.  As  cities  acquired  new  considera- 
tion and  dignity  by  the  accession  of  such  citizens,  they  became  more 
solicitous  to  preserve  their  liberty  and  independence.  The  emperors,  as 
sovereigns,  had  anciently  a  palace  in  almost  every  great  city  of  Italy  : 
when  they  visited  that  country,  they  were  accustomed  to  reside  in  these 
palaces,  and  the  troops  which  accompanied  them  were  quartered  in  the 
houses  of  the  citizens.  This  the  citizens  deemed  both  ignominious  and 
dangerous.  They  could  not  help  considering  it  as  receiving  a  master  and 
an  enemy  within  their  walls.  They  laboured,  therefore,  to  get  free  of  this 
subjection.  Some  cities  prevailed  on  the  emperors  to  engage  that  they 
would  never  enter  their  gates  but  take  up  their  residence  without  the 
walls.  (Chart.  Hen.  IV.,  Murat.,  ibid.,  p.  24.)  Others  obtained  the  im- 
perial license  to  pull  down  the  palace  situated  within  their  liberties,  on 
condition  that  they  built  another  in  the  suburbs  for  the  occasional  re- 
ception of  the  emperor.  (Chart.  Hen.  IV.,  Murat.,  ibid.,  p.  25.)  These 
various  encroachments  of  the  Italian  cities  alarmed  the  emperors,  and 
put  them  on  schemes  for  re-establishing  the  imperial  jurisdiction  over  them 
on  its  ancient  footing.  Frederic  Barbarossa  engaged  in  this  enterprise 
with  great  ardour.  The  free  cities  of  Italy  joined  together  in  a  general 
league,  and  stood  on  their  defence  ;  and  after  a  long  contest,  carried  on 
with  alternate  success,  a  solemn  treaty  of  peace  was  concluded  at  Con- 
stance, A.D.  1183,  by  which  all  the  privileges  and  immunities  granted  by 
former  emperors  to  the  principal  cities  in  Italy  were  confirmed  and  rati- 
fied. (Murat.,  Dissert.  XLVIII.)  This  treaty  of  Constance  was  considered 
as  such  an  important  article  in  the  jurisprudence  of  the  Middle  Ages  that 
it  is  usually  published  together  with  the  Libri  Feudorum  at  the  end  of  the 
Corpus  Juris  Civilis.  The  treaty  secured  privileges  of  great  importance  to 
the  confederate  cities,  and  though  it  reserved  a  considerable  degree  of 
authority  and  jurisdiction  to  the  empire,  yet  the  cities  persevered  with  such 
vigour  in  their  efforts  in  order  to  extend  their  immunities,  and  the  con- 
junctures in  which  they  made  them  were  so  favourable,  that  before  the 
conclusion  of  the  thirteenth  century  most  of  the  great  cities  in  Italy  had 
shaken  off  all  marks  of  subjection  to  the  empire  and  were  become  inde- 
pendent sovereign  republics.  It  is  not  requisite  that  I  should  trace  the 


NOTE  xvi.]  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  213 

various  steps  by  which  they  advanced  to  this  high  degree  of  power,  so  fatal 
to  the  empire  and  so  beneficial  to  the  cause  of  liberty  in  Italy.  Muratori, 
with  his  usual  industry,  has  collected  many  original  papers  which  illus- 
trate this  curious  and  little  known  part  of  history.  Murat.,  Autiq.  ItaL, 
Dissert.  L.  See  also  Jo.  Bapt.  Villanovaa  Hist.  Laudis  Pompeii  sive 
Lodi,  in  Grsev.  Thes.  Antiquit.  ItaL,  vol.  iii.  p.  888. 

NOTE  XVI.— Sect.  I.  p.  33. 

Long  before  the  institution  of  communities  in  France,  charters  of  im- 
munity or  franchise  were  granted  to  some  towns  and  villages  by  the  lords 
on  whom  they  depended.  But  these  are  very  different  from  such  as  be- 
came common  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries.  They  did  not 
erect  these  towns  into  corporations ;  they  did  not  establish  a  municipal 
government  ;  they  did  not  grant  them  the  privilege  of  bearing  aims. 
They  contained  nothing  more  than  a  manumission  of  the  inhabitants  from 
the  yoke  of  servitude  ;  an  exemption  from  certain  services  which  were 
oppressive  and  ignominious  ;  and  the  establishment  of  a  fixed  tax  or  rent 
which  the  citizens  were  to  pay  to  their  lord  in  place  of  impositions  which 
he  could  formerly  lay  upon  them  at  pleasure.  Two  charters  of  this  kind 
to  two  villages  in  the  county  of  Roussillon,  one  in  A.D.  974,  the  other 
in  A.D.  1025,  are  still  extant.  (Petr.  de  Marca,  Marca,  sive-  Limes  His- 
panicus,  App.,  pp.  909,  1038.)  Such  concessions,  it  is  probable,  were 
not  unknown  in  other  parts  of  Europe,  and  may  be  considered  as  a  step 
towards  the  more  extensive  privileges  conferred  by  Louis  le  Gros  on  the 
towns  within  his  domains.  The  communities  in  France  never  aspired 
to  the  same  independence  with  those  in  Italy.  They  acquired  new 
privileges  and  immunities,  but  the  right  of  sovereignty  remained  entire  to 
the  king  or  baron  within  whose  territories  the  respective  cities  were  situated 
and  from  whom  they  received  the  charter  of  their  freedom.  A  great 
number  of  these  charters,  granted  both  by  the  kings  of  France  and  by 
their  great  vassals,  are  published  by  M.  d'Achery  in  his  Spicilegium,  and 
many  are  found  in  the  collection  of  the  Ordonnances  des  Rois  de  France. 
These  convey  a  very  striking  representation  of  the  wretched  condition  of 
cities  previous  to  the  institution  of  communities,  when  they  were  subject 
to  the  judges  appointed  by  the  superior  lords  of  whom  they  held,  and 
who  had  scarcely  any  other  law  but  their  will.  Each  concession  in  these 
charters  must  be  considered  as  a  grant  of  some  new  privileges  which  the 
people  did  not  formerly  enjoy,  and  each  regulation  as  a  method  of  redressing 
some  grievance  under  which  the  inhabitants  of  cities  formerly  laboured. 
The  charters  of  communities  contain  likewise  the  first  expedients  employed 
for  the  introduction  of  equal  laws  and  regular  government.  On  both  these 
accounts  they  merit  particular  attention,  and  therefore,  instead  of  referring 
my  readers  to  the  many  bulky  volumes  in  which  they  are  scattered,  I  ahull 
give  them  a  view  of  some  of  the  most  important  articles  in  these  charters, 
ranged  under  two  general  heads.  I.  Such  aa  respect  personal  safety. 
II.  Such  as  respect  the  security  of  property. 

I.  During  that  state  of  turbulence  and  disorder  which  the  corruption  of 
the  feudal  government  introduced  into  Europe,  personal  safety  was  the 
hrst  and  great  object  of  every  individual ;  and,  as  the  great  military  barons 


214  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS        OO±E  xvi. 

alone  were  able  to  give  sufficient  protection  to  their  vassals,  this  was  one 
threat  source  of  their  power  and  authority.  But  by  the  institution  r>f 
communities  effectual  provision  was  made  for  the  safety  of  individual/, 
independent  of  the  nobles.  For,  1.  The  fundamental  '•ticle  in  eveiy 
charter  was  that  all  the  members  of  the  community  bound  themselves  by 
oath  to  assist,  defend,  and  stand  by  each  other  against  all  aggressors,  and 
that  they  should  not  suffer  any  person  to  injure,  distress,  or  molest  any  of 
their  fellow-citizens.  (D'Acher.,  SpiciL,  x.  642,  xi.  341,  etc.)  2.  Who- 
ever resided  in  any  town  which  was  made  free  was  obliged,  under  a  severe 
.penalty,  to  accede  to  the  community  and  to  take  part  in  the  mutual  defence 
of  its  members.  (D'Acher.,  SpiciL,  xi.  344.)  3.  The  communities  had 
the  privilege  of  carrying  arms  ;  of  making  war  on  their  private  enemies  ; 
and  of  executing  by  military  force  any  sentence  which  their  magistrates 
pronounced.  (D'Acher.,  Spicil.,  x.  643,  644,  xi.  343.)  4.  The  practice 
of  making  satisfaction  by  a  pecuniary  compensation  for  murder,  assault,  or 
other  acts  of  violence,  most  inconsistent  with  the  order  of  society  and  the 
safety  of  individuals,  was  abolished  ;  and  such  as  committed  these  crimes 
were  punished  capitally,  or  with  rigour  adequate  to  their  guilt.  (D'Ach., 
xi.  362  ;  Mirsei  Opera  Diplomatica,  i.  292.)  5.  No  member  of  a  com- 
munity was  bound  to  justify  or  defend  himself  by  battle  or  combat ;  but 
if  he  was  charged  with  any  crime  he  could  be  convicted  only  by  the 
evidence  of  witnesses  and  the  regular  course  of  legal  proceedings.  (Mirceus, 
ibid.  ;  D'Ach.,  xi.  375,  349  ;  Ordon.,  torn.  iii.  p.  265.)  6.  If  any  man 
suspected  himself  to  be  in  danger  from  the  malice  or  enmity  of  another, 
upon  his  making  oath  to  that  effect  before  a  magistrate  the  person  suspected 
was  bound  under  a  severe  penalty  to  give  security  for  his  peaceable  be- 
haviour. (D'Ach.,  xi.  346.)  This  is  the  same  species  of  security  which 
is  still  known  in  Scotland  under  the  name  of  law  burrows.  Tn  France  it 
was  first  introduced  among  the  inhabitants  of  communities,  and,  having 
been  found  to  contribute  considerably  towards  personal  safety,  it  was  ex- 
tended to  all  the  other  members  of  the  society.  Etablissemens  de  St. 
Louis,  liv.  L  cap.  28,  ap.  Du  Cange,  Vie  de  St.  Louis,  p.  15. 

II.  The  provisions  in  the  charters  of  communities  concerning  the  secu- 
rity of  property  are  not  less  considerable  than  those  respecting  personal 
safety,  by  the  ancient  law  of  France,  no  person  could  be  arrested  or  con- 
fined in  prison  on  account  of  any  private  debt  (Ordon.  des  Rois  de 
France,  torn.  i.  pp.  72,  80.)  If  any  person  was  arrested  upon  any  pre- 
text but  his  having  been  guilty  of  a  capital  crime,  it  was  lawful  to  rescue 
him  out  of  the  hands  of  the  officers  who  had  seized  him.  (Ordon.,  torn.  iii. 
p.  1 7.)  Freedom  from  arrest  on  account  of  debt  seems  likewise  to  have 
been  enjoyed  in  other  countries.  (Gudenus,  Sylloge  Diplom.,  473.)  In 
society,  while  it  remained  in  its  rudest  and  most  simple  form,  debt  seems 
to  have  been  considered  as  an  obligation  merely  personaL  Men  had  made 
some  progress  towards  refinement  before  creditors  acquired  a  right  of 
seizing  the  property  of  their  debtors  in  order  to  recover  payment.  The 
expedients  for  this  purpose  were  all  introduced  originally  in  communities, 
and  we  can  trace  the  gradual  progress  of  them.  1.  The  simplest  and 
most  obvious  species  of  security  was  that  the  person  who  sold  any  com 
modity  should  receive  a  pledge  from  him  who  bought  it,  which  he  re- 
stored upon  receiving  pavment.  Of  this  custom  there  are  vestiges  in 


NOTE  xvi.]  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  215 

several  charters  of  community.  (D'Ach.,  ix.  185,  xi,  ,377.)  2.  When 
no  pledge  was  given,  and  the  debtor  became  refractor)  or  insolvent,  the 
creditor  was  allowed  to  seize  his  effects  with  a  strong  hand  and  by  his 
private  authority ;  the  citizens  of  Paris  are  wan-anted  by  the  royal  man- 
date, "  ut  ubicumque,  et  quocumque  modo  poterunt,  tantum  capiant, 
unde  pecuniam  sibi  debitam  integre  et  plenarie  habeant,  et  inde  sibi 
invicem  udju tores  existant."  (Ordon.,  etc.,  torn,  i.  p.  6.)  This  rude  prac- 
tice, suitable  only  to  the  violence  of  that  which  has  been  called  a  state  of 
nature,  was  tolerated  longer  than  one  can  conceive  to  be  possible  in  any 
society  where  laws  and  order  were  at  all  known.  The  ordinance  autho- 
rizing it  was  issued  A.D.  1134;  and  that  which  corrects  the  law,  and 
prohibits  creditors  from  seizing  the  effects  of  their  debtors  unless  by  a 
warrant  from  a  magistrate  and  under  his  inspection,  was  not  published 
until  the  year  1351.  (Ordon.,  torn,  k  p.  438.)  It  is  probable,  how- 
ever, that  men  were  taught,  by  observing  the  disorders  which  the  former 
mode  of  proceeding  occasioned,  to  correct  it  in  practice  long  before  a 
remedy  was  provided  by  a  law  to  that  effect.  Every  discerning  reader 
will  apply  this  observation  to  many  other  customs  and  practices  which 
I  have  mentioned.  New  customs  are  not  always  to  be  ascribed  to  the 
laws  which  authorize  them.  Those  statutes  only  give  a  legal  sanction 
to  such  things  as  the  experience  of  mankind  has  previously  found  to  be 
proper  and  beneficial.  3.  As  soon  as  the  interposition  of  the  magistrate 
became  requisite,  regular  provision  was  made  for  attaching  or  distraining 
the  movable  effects  of  a  debtor ;  and  if  his  movables  were  not  sufficient 
to  discharge  the  debt,  his  immovable  property,  or  estate  in  land,  was 
liable  to  the  same  distress,  and  was  sold  for  the  benefit  of  his  creditor. 
(D'Ach.,  ix.  184,  185,  xi.  348,  380.)  As  this  regulation  afforded  the 
most  complete  security  to  the  creditor,  it  was  considered  as  so  severe 
that  humanity  pointed  out  several  limitations  in  the  execution  of  it. 
Creditors  were  prohibited  from  seizing  the  wearing-apparel  of  their  debtors, 
their  beds,  the  door  of  their  house,  their  instruments  of  husbandly,  etc. 
(D'Ach.,  ix.  184,  xi.  377.)  Upon  the  same  principles,  when  the  power 
of  distraining  effects  became  more  general,  the  horse  and  arms  of  a 
gentleman  could  not  be  seized.  (D'Ach.,  ix.  185.)  As  hunting  was 
the  favourite  amusement  of  martial  nobles,  the  emperor  Ludovicus  Pius 
prohibited  the  seizing  of  a  hawk  on  account  of  any  composition  or  debt. 
(Capitul.,  lib.  iv.  §  21.)  But,  if  the  debtor  had  no  other  movables,  even 
these  privileged  articles  might  be  seized.  4.  In  order  to  render  the 
security  of  property  complete  within  a  community,  every  person  who  was 
admitted  a  member  of  it  was  obliged  to  buy  or  build  a  house,  or  to  pur- 
chase lands  within  its  precincts,  or  at  least  to  bring  into  the  town  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  his  movables,  per  qucs  justiciari  possit,  si  quid  forte  in 
eum  querdiz  cvenerit.  (D'Ach.,  xi  326  ;  Ordon.,  torn.  i.  p.  367  ;  Liber- 
tates  S.  Georgii  de  Esperanchia,  Hist,  de  Dauphins',  torn,  i  p.  26.) 
5.  That  security  might  be  as  perfect  as  possible,  in  some  towns  the  me  n- 
bers  of  the  community  seem  to  have  been  bound  for  each  other.  (D'A  ;h., 
x.,  644.)  6.  All  questions  with  respect  to  property  were  tried  within 
the  community,  by  magistrates  and  judges  whom  the  citizens  elected  or 
appointed.  Their  decisions  were  more  equal  and  fixed  than  the  sentences 
which  depended  on  the  capricious  and  arbitrary  will  of  a  baron,  who 


21 G  PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  [NOTE  xvi. 

thought  himself  superior  to  all  laws.  (D'Ach.,  x.  644,  646,  xi.  344,  et 
passim  ;  Ordon.,  torn,  iil  p.  204.)  7.  No  member  of  a  community  could 
be  burdened  by  any  arbitrary  tax ;  for  the  superior  lord,  who  granted  the 
charter  of  community,  accepted  of  a  fixed  census  or  duty  in  lieu  of  all 
demands.  (Ordon.,  torn.  iii.  p.  204 ;  Libertates  de  Calma,  Hist,  de 
Dauphins',  torn.  i.  p.  19  ;  Libertates  S.  Georgii  de  Esperanchia,  ibid., 
p.  26.)  Nor  could  the  members  of  a  community  be  distressed  by  an  un- 
equal imposition  of  the  sum  to  be  levied  on  the  community.  Regulations 
are  inserted  in  the  charters  of  some  communities  concerning  the  method  of 
determining  the  quota  of  any  tax  to  be  levied  on  each  inhabitant.  (D'Ach. , 
xi  350,  365.)  St.  Louis  published  an  ordinance  concerning  this  matter, 
which  extended  to  all  the  communities.  (Ordon.,  torn.  i.  p.  186.)  These 
regulations  are  extremely  favourable  to  liberty,  as  they  vest  the  power  of 
proportioning  the  taxes  in  a  certain  number  of  citizens  chosen  out  of  each 
parish,  who  were  bound  by  solemn  oath  to  decide  according  to  justice. 
That  the  more  perfect  security  of  property  was  one  great  object  of  those 
who  instituted  communities,  we  learn  not  only  from  the  nature  of  the 
thing,  but  from  the  express  words  of  several  charters,  of  which  I  shall  only 
mention  that  granted  by  Alienor,  queen  of  England  and  duchess  of  Guienne, 
to  the  community  of  Poitiers,  "  ut  sua  propria  melius  defendere  possint, 
et  magis  integre  custodire."  (Du  Cange,  voc.  Communia,  vol.  ii.  p.  863.) 
Such  are  some  of  the  capital  regulations  established  in  communities  during 
the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries.  These  may  be  considered  as  the  first 
expedients  for  the  re-establishment  of  law  and  order,  and  contributed 
greatly  to  introduce  regular  government  among  all  the  members  of  society. 
As  soon  as  communities  were  instituted,  high  sentiments  of  liberty  began 
to  manifest  themselves.  When  Humbert,  lord  of  Beaujeu,  upon  granting 
a  charter  of  community  to  the  town  of  Belleville,  exacted  of  the  inhabit- 
ants an  oath  of  fidelity  to  himself  and  successors,  they  stipulated,  on  their 
part,  that  he  shoxild  swear  to  maintain  their  franchises  and  liberties  ;  and, 
for  their  greater  security,  they  obliged  him  to  bring  twenty  gentlemen  to 
take  the  same  oath  and  to  be  bound  together  with  him.  (D'Ach.,  ix. 
183.)  In  the  same  manner,  the  lord  of  Moriens  in  Dauphine  produced 
a  certain  number  of  persons  as  his  sureties  for  the  observation  of  the  articles 
contained  in  the  charter  of  community  to  that  town.  These  were  bound 
to  surrender  themselves  prisoners  to  the  inhabitants  of  Moriens  if  their 
liege-lord  should  violate  any  of  their  franchises,  and  they  promised  to  re- 
main in  custody  until  he  should  grant  the  members  of  the  community 
redress.  (Hist,  de  Dauphin^,  torn.  i.  p.  17.)  If  the  mayor  or  chief 
magistrate  of  a  town  did  any  injury  to  a  citizen,  he  was  obliged  to  give 
security  for  his  appearance  in  judgment,  in  the  same  manner  as  a  private 
person,  and,  if  cast,  was  liable  to  the  same  penalty.  (D'Ach.,  ix.  183.) 
These  are  ideas  of  equality  uncommon  in  the  feudal  times.  Communities 
were  so  favourable  to  freedom  that  they  were  distinguished  by  the  name 
of  libertates.  (Du  Cange,  voL  ii.  p.  863.)  They  were  at  first  extremely 
odious  to  the  nobles,  who  foresaw  what  a  check  they  must  prove  to  their 
power  and  domination.  Guibert,  abbot  of  Nogent,  calls  them  execrable 
inventions,  by  which,  contrary  to  law  and  justice,  slaves  withdrew  them- 
selves from  that  obedience  which  they  owed  to  their  masters.  (Du  Gauge, 
ibid.,  p.  862.)  The  zeal  with  which  some  of  the  nobles  and  powerful 


NOTE  xvn.]         PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  217 

ecclesiastics  opposed  the  establishment  of  communities  and  endeavoured  to 
circumscribe  tlicir  privileges  was  extraordinary.  A  striking  instance  of 
this  occurs  in  the  contests  between  the  archbishop  of  Rheims  and  the  in- 
habitants of  that  community.  It  was  the  chief  business  of  every  arch- 
bishop, during  a  considerable  time,  to  abridge  the  rights  and  jurisdiction 
of  the  community  ;  and  the  great  object  of  the  citizens,  especially  when 
the  see  was  vacant,  to  maintain,  to  recover,  and  to  extend  their  own  juris- 
diction. Histoire  civile  et  politiquede  la  Ville  de  Reims,  parM.  Anquetil, 
torn,  i  p.  287,  etc. 

The  observations  which  I  have  made  concerning  the  low  state  of  cities, 
and  the  condition  of  their  inhabitants,  are  confirmed  by  innumerable 
passages  in  the  historians  and  laws  of  the  Middle  Ages,  It  is  not  im- 
probable, however,  that  some  cities  of  the  first  order  were  in  a  better  state 
and  enjoyed  a  superior  degree  of  liberty.  Under  the  Roman  government 
the  municipal  government  established  in  cities  was  extremely  favourable 
to  liberty.  The  jurisdiction  of  the  senate  in  each  corporation,  and  the 
privileges  of  the  citizens,  were  both  extensive.  There  is  reason  to  believe 
that  some  of  the  greater  cities,  which  escaped  the  destructive  rage  of  the 
barbarous  nations,  still  retained  their  ancient  form  of  government,  at  least 
in  a  great  measure.  They  were  governed  by  a  council  of  citizens,  and  by 
magistrates  whom  they  themselves  elected.  Very  strong  presumptions  in 
favour  of  this  opinion  are  produced  by  M.  1'Abbd  de  Bos,  Hist  crit.  de  la 
Mon.  Frang.,  torn.  i.  p.  18,  etc.,  torn,  ii,  p.  524,  edit  1742.  It  appears 
from  some  of  the  charters  of  community  to  cities,  granted  in  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries,  that  these  only  confirm  the  privileges  possessed 
by  the  inhabitants  previous  to  the  establishment  of  the  community. 
(D'Acher.,  Spicileg.,  vol.  xi.  p.  345.)  Other  cities  claimed  their  privi- 
leges, as  having  possessed  them  without  interruption  from  the  times  of  the 
Romans.  (Hist  crit  de  la  Mon.  Franc.,  torn.  ii.  p.  333.)  But  the 
number  of  cities  which  enjoyed  such  immunities  was  so  small  as  hardly  in 
any  degree  to  diminish  the  force  of  my  conclusions  in  the  text 

NOTE  XVII.— Sect  I.  p.  33. 

Having  given  a  full  account  of  the  establishment,  as  well  as  effects,  of 
communities  in  Italy  and  France,  it  will  be  necessary  to  inquire  with  some 
attention  into  the  progress  of  cities  and  of  municipal  government  in 
Germany.  The  ancient  Germans  had  no  cities.  Even  in  their  hamlets  or 
villages  they  did  not  build  their  houses  contiguous  to  each  other.  (Tacit, 
de  Mor.  Germ.,  cap.  16.)  They  considered  it  as  a  badge  of  servitude  to 
be  obliged  to  dwell  in  a  city  siirrounded  with  walls.  When  one  of  their 
tribes  had  shaken  off  the  Roman  yoke,  their  countrymen  required  of  them, 
as  an  evidence  of  their  having  recovered  liberty,  to  demolish  the  walls  of  a 
town  which  the  Romans  had  built  in  their  country.  Even  the  fiercest 
animals,  said  they,  lose  their  spirit  and  courage  when  they  are  confined. 
(Tacit,  Histor.,  lib.  iv.  c.  64.)  The  Romans  built  several  cities  of  note 
on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine.  But  in  all  the  vast  countries  from  that  river 
to  the  coasts  of  the  Baltic  there  was  hardly  one  city  previous  to  the  ninth 
century  of  the  Christian  era,  (Conringius,  Exercitatio  de  Urbibus  Ger- 
manise, Oper.,  vol.  i.  §§  25,  27,  31,  etc.)  Heineccius  differs  from  Con- 


218  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.          [NOTE  xvn. 

ringius  with  respect  to  this.  But,  even  after  allowing  to  his  arguments 
and  authorities  their  utmost  force,  they  prove  only  that  there  were  a  few 
places  in  those  extensive  regions  on  which  some  historians  have  bestowed 
the  name  of  towns.  (Elem.  Jur.  German.,  lib.  i.  §  102.)  Under  Charle- 
magne and  the  emperors  of  his  family,  as  the  political  state  of  Germany 
began  to  improve,  several  cities  were  founded,  and  men  became  accustomed 
to  associate  and  to  live  together  in  one  place.  Charlemagne  founded  two 
archbishoprics  and  nine  bishoprics  in  the  most  considerable  towns  of  Ger- 
many. (Aub.  Miroei  Opera  Diplomatica,  vol.  i.  p.  16.)  His  successors 
increased  the  number  of  these  ;  and  as  bishops  fixed  their  residence  in  the 
chief  town  of  their  diocese,  and  performed  religious  functions  there,  that 
induced  many  people  to  settle  in  them.  (Coming.,  ibid.,  §  48.)  But 
Henry,  surnamed  the  Fowler,  who  began  his  reign  A.D.  920,  must  be  con- 
sidered as  the  great  founder  of  cities  in  Germany.  The  empire  was  at  that 
time  infested  by  the  incursions  of  the  Hungarians  and  other  barbarous  people. 
In  order  to  oppose  them,  Henry  encouraged  his  subjects  to  settle  in  cities, 
which  he  surrounded  with  walls  strengthened  by  towers.  He  enjoined  or 
persuaded  a  certain  proportion  of  the  nobility  to  fix  their  residence  in  the 
towns,  and  thus  rendered  the  condition  of  citizens  more  honourable  than  it 
had  been  formerly.  (Wittikindus,  Annal.,  lib.  i.,  ap.  Conring.,  §  82.) 
From  this  period  the  number  of  cities  continued  to  increase,  and  they 
became  more  populous  and  more  wealthy.  But  cities  in  Germany  were 
still  destitute  of  municipal  liberty  or  jurisdiction.  Such  of  them  as  were 
situated  in  the  imperial  demesnes  were  subject  to  the  emperors.  Their 
comites,  missi,  and  other  judges  presided  in  them  and  dispensed  justice. 
Towns  situated  on  the  estate  of  a  baron  were  part  of  his  fief,  and  he  or 
his  officers  exercised  a  similar  jurisdiction  in  them.  (Conring.,  ibid., 
§§  73,  74  ;  Heinec.,  Elem.  Jur.  Germ.,  lib.  i.  §  104.)  The  Germans 
borrowed  the  institution  of  communities  from  the  Italians.  (Kuipschil- 
dius,  Tractatus  Politico-Histor.  Jurid.  de  Civitatum  Imperialium  Juribus, 
vol.  i.  lib.  i  cap.  5,  no.  23.)  Frederic  Barbarossa  was  the  first  emperor 
who,  from  the  same  political  consideration  that  influenced  Louis  le  Gros, 
multiplied  communities  in  order  to  abridge  the  power  of  the  nobles. 
(Pfeffel,  Abrdge  de  1'Histoire  et  du  Droit  publique  d'Allemagne,  4to,  p. 
297.)  From  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Fowler  to  the  time  when  the  German 
cities  acquired  full  possession  of  their  immunities,  various  circumstances 
contributed  to  their  increase.  The  establishment  of  bishoprics  (already 
mentioned),  and  the  building  of  cathedrals,  naturally  induced  many  people 
to  settle  near  the  chief  place  of  worship.  It  became  the  custom  to  hold 
councils  and  courts  of  judicature  of  every  kind,  ecclesiastical  as  well  as 
civil,  in  cities.  In  the  eleventh  centuiy  many  slaves  were  enfranchised, 
the  greater  part  of  whom  settled  in  cities.  Several  mines  were  discovered 
and  wrought  in  different  provinces,  which  drew  together  such  a  concourse 
of  people  as  gave  rise  to  several  cities  and  increased  the  number  of  inhabi- 
tants in  others.  (Conring.,  §  105.)  The  cities  began  in  the  thirteenth 
century  to  form  leagues  for  their  mutual  defence,  and  for  repressing  the 
disorders  occasioned  by  the  private  wars  among  the  barons,  as  well  as  by 
their  exactions.  This  rendered  the  condition  of  the  inhabitants  of  cities 
more  secure  than  that  of  any  other  order  of  men,  and  allured  many  to 
become  members  of  their  communities.  (Coming.,  §  94.)  There  were 


xvin.]        PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  219 

inhabitants  of  three  different  ranks  in  the  towns  of  Germany  :  the  nobles, 
or  familce ;  the  citizens,  or  liberi ;  and  the  artisans,  who  were  slaves,  or 
homines  proprii.  (Knipschild. ,  lib.  ii  cap.  29,  no.  13.)  Henry  V.,  who 
began  his  reign  A.D.  1106,  enfranchised  the  slaves  who  were  artisans  or 
inhabitants  in  several  towns,  and  gave  them  the  rank  of  citizens  or  liberi. 
(Pfeffel,  p.  254;  Knipsch.,  lib.  ii  c.  29,  nos.  113,  119.)  Though  the 
cities  in  Germany  did  not  acquire  liberty  so  early  as  those  in  France,  they 
extended  their  privileges  much  farther.  All  the  imperial  and  free  cities, 
the  number  of  which  is  considerable,  acquired  the  full  right  of  being 
immediate  ;  by  which  term,  in  the  German  jurisprudence,  we  are  to  under- 
stand that  they  are  subject  to  the  empire  alone,  and  possess  within  their 
own  precincts  all  the  rights  of  complete  and  independent  sovereignty.  The 
various  privileges  of  the  imperial  cities,  the  great  guardians  of  the  Germanic 
liberties,  are  enumerated  by  Knipschildius,  lib.  ii.  The  most  important 
articles  are  generally  known,  and  it  would  be  improper  to  enter  into  any 
disquisition  concerning  minute  particulars. 

NOTE  XVIII. — Sect.  L  p.  33. 

The  Spanish  historians  are  almost  entirely  silent  concerning  the  origin 
and  progress  of  communities  in  that  kingdom ;  so  -that  I  cannot  fix  with 
any  degree  of  certainty  the  time  and  manner  of  their  first  introduction 
there.  It  appears,  however,  from  Mariana,  vol.  ii.  p.  221,  fol.  Hagse,  1736, 
that  in  the  year  1350  eighteen  cities  had  obtained  a  seat  in  the  cortes  of 
Castile.  From  the  account  which  will  be  given  of  their  constitution  and 
pretensions,  Sect.  III.  of  this  volume,  it  will  appear  that  their  privileges 
and  form  of  government  were  the  same  with  those  of  the  other  feudal 
corporations  ;  and  this,  as  well  as  the  perfect  similarity  of  political  insti- 
tutions and  transactions  in  all  the  feudal  kingdoms,  may  lead  us  to 
conclude  that  communities  were  introduced  there  in  the  same  manner  and 
probably  about  the  same  time  as  in  the  other  nations  of  Europe.  In 
Aragon,  as  I  shall  have  occasion  to  observe  in  a  subsequent  note,  cities 
seem  early  to  have  acquired  extensive  immunities,  together  with  a  share  in 
the  legislature.  In  the  year  1118  the  citizens  of  Saragossa  had  not  only 
attained  political  liberty,  but  they  were  declared  to  be  of  equal  rank  with 
the  nobles  of  the  second  class  ;  and  many  other  immunities,  unknown  to 
persons  in  their  rank  of  life  in  other  parts  of  Europe,  were  conferred  upon 
them.  (Zurita,  Anales  de  Aragon,  torn,  i  p.  44.)  In  England,  the 
establishment  of  communities  or  corporations  was  posterior  to  the  Con- 
quest. The  practice  was  borrowed  from  France,  and  the  privileges  granted 
by  the  crown  were  perfectly  similar  to  those  which  I  have  enumerated. 
But,  as  this  part  of  history  is  well  known  to  most  of  my  readers,  I  shall, 
without  entering  into  any  critical  or  minute  discussion,  refer  them  to 
authors  who  have  fully  illustrated  this  interesting  point  in  the  English 
history.  (Brady's  Treatise  of  Boroughs ;  Madox,  Firma  Burgi,  cap.  i. 
sect.  ix.  ;  Hume's  History  of  England,  voL  i.,  Append,  i.  and  ii.)  It  is 
not  improbable  that  some  of  the  towns  in  England  were  formed  into  cor- 
porations under  the  Saxon  kings,  and  that  the  charters  granted  by  the 
kings  of  the  Norman  race  were  not  charters  of  enfranchisement  from  a 
state  of  slavery,  but  a  confirmation  of  privileges  which  they  already 


220  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  [NOTE  xix. 

enjoyed.  (See  Lord  Lyttelton's  History  of  Henry  II.,  vol.  ii.  p.  317.) 
The  English  cities,  however,  were  very  inconsiderable  in  the  twelfth 
century.  A  clear  proof  of  this  occurs  in  the  history  to  which  I  last 
referred.  Fitzstephen,  a  contemporary  author,  gives  a  description  of  the 
city  of  London  in  the  reign  of  Henry  II.,  and  the  terms  in  which  he 
speaks  of  its  trade,  its  wealth,  and  the  splendour  of  its  inhabitants,  would 
suggest  uo  inadequate  idea  of  its  state  at  present,  when  it  is  the  greatest 
and  most  opulent  city  of  Europe.  But  all  ideas  of  grandeur  and  magnifi- 
cence are  merely  comparative  ;  and  every  description  of  them  in  general 
terms  is  very  apt  to  deceive.  It  appears  from  Peter  of  Blois,  archdeacon 
of  London,  who  flourished  in  the  same  reign,  and  who  had  good  oppor- 
tunity of  being  well  informed,  that  this  city,  of  which  Fitzstephen  gives 
such  a  pompous  account,  contained  no  more  than  forty  thousand  inhabi- 
tants. (Ibid,  pp.  315,  '316.)  The  other  cities  were  small  in  proportion, 
and  were  not  in  a  condition  to  extort  any  extensive  privileges.  That  the 
constitution  of  the  boroughs  in  Scotland,  in  many  circumstances,  resembled 
that  of  the  towns  in  France  and  England,  is  manifest  from  the  Leges 
Burgorum,  annexed  to  the  Regiam  Majestatem. 

NOTE  XIX.— Sect.  I.  p.  38. 

Soon  after  the  introduction  of  the  third  estate  into  the  national  council, 
the  spirit  of  liberty  which  that  excited  in  France  began  to  produce  con- 
spicuous effects.  In  several  provinces  of  France  the  nobility  and  com- 
munities formed  associations  whereby  they  bound  themselves  to  defend 
their  rights  and  privileges  against  the  formidable  and  arbitrary  proceedings 
of  the  king.  The  Count  de  Boulainvilliers  has  preserved  a  copy  of  one  of 
these  associations,  dated  in  the  year  1314,  twelve  years  after  the  admis- 
sion of  the  deputies  from  towns  into  the  states-general.  (Histoire  de 
1'ancien  Gouvemement  de  la  France,  torn.  ii.  p.  94.)  The  vigour  with 
which  the  people  asserted  and  prepared  to  maintain  their  rights  obliged 
their  sovereigns  to  respect  them.  Six  years  after  this  association,  Philip 
the  Long  issued  a  writ  of  summons  to  the  community  of  Narbonne,  in  the 
following  terms  :  "  Philip,  by  the  grace,  etc.,  to  our  well-beloved,  etc.  As 
we  desire  with  all  our  heart,  and  above  all  other  things,  to  govern  our 
kingdom  and  people  in  peace  and  tranquillity,  by  the  help  of  God,  and 
to  reform  our  said  kingdom  in  so  far  as  it  stands  in  need  thereof,  for 
the  public  good  and  for  the  benefit  of  our  subjects,  who  in  times  past 
have  been  aggrieved  and  oppressed  in  divers  manners  by  the  malice  of 
sundry  persons,  as  we  have  learned  by  common  report,  as  well  as  by  the 
information  of  good  men  worthy  of  credit,  and  we  having  determined  in 
our  council  which  we  have  called  to  meet  in  our  good  city,  etc.,  to  give 
redress  to  the  utmost  of  our  power,  by  all  ways  and  means  possible, 
according  to  reason  and  justice,  and  willing  that  this  should  be  done  with 
solemnity  and  deliberation,  by  the  advice  of  the  prelates,  barons,  and  good 
towns  of  our  realm,  and  particularly  of  you,  and  that  it  should  be  trans- 
acted agreeably  to  the  will  of  God  and  for  the  good  of  our  people,  therefore 
we  command,"  etc.  (Mably,  Observat.,  vol.  iii.,  App.,  p.  386.)  I  shall 
allow  these  to  be  only  the  formal  words  of  a  public  and  legal  style  ;  but 
the  ideas  are  singular,  and  much  more  liberal  and  enlarged  than  one  could 


NOTE  xx.]  PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  221 

expect  in  that  age.  A  popular  monarch  of  Great  Britain  could  hardly 
address  himself  to  parliament  in  terms  more  favourable  to  public  liberty. 
There  occurs  in  the  history  of  France  a  striking  instance  of  the  progress 
which  the  principles  of  liberty  had  made  in  that  kingdom,  and  of  the 
influence  which  the  deputies  of  towns  had  acquired  in  the  states-general. 
During  the  calamities  in  which  the  war  with  England  and  the  captivity  of 
King  John  had  involved  France,  the  states-general  made  a  bold  efl'ort  to 
extend  their  own  privileges  and  jurisdiction.  The  regulations  established 
by  the  states  held  A.D.  1355,  concerning  the  mode  of  levying  taxes,  the 
administration  of  wliich  they  vested,  not  in  the  crown,  but  in  commis- 
sioners appointed  by  the  states ;  concerning  the  coining  of  money  ;  con- 
cerning the  redress  of  the  grievance  of  purveyance  ;  concerning  the  regular 
administration  of  justice, — are  much  more  suitable  to  the  genius  of  a 
republican  government  than  that  of  a  feudal  monarchy.  This  curious 
statute  is  published,  Ordon.,  torn.  iii.  p.  19.  Such  as  have  not  an  oppor- 
tunity to  consult  that  large  collection  will  find  an  abridgment  of  it  in 
Hist,  de  France  par  Villaret,  torn.  ix.  p.  130,  or  in  Histoire  de  Boulainv., 
torn.  ii.  p.  213.  The  French  historians  represent  the  bishop  of  Laon,  and 
Marcel,  provost  of  the  merchants  of  Paris,  who  had  the  chief  direction  of 
this  assembly,  as  seditious  tribunes,  violent,  interested,  ambitious,  and 
aiming  at  innovations  subversive  of  the  constitution  and  government  of 
their  country.  That  may  have  been  the  case  ;  but  these  men  possessed 
the  confidence  of  the  people  ;  and  the  measures  which  they  proposed  as 
the  most  popular  and  acceptable,  as  well  as  most  likely  to  increase  their 
own  influence,  plainly  prove  that  the  spirit  of  liberty  had  spread  wonder- 
fully, and  that  the  ideas  which  then  prevailed  in  France  concerning 
government  were  extremely  liberal  The  states-general  held  at  Paris  A.D. 
1355  consisted  of  about  eight  hundred  members,  and  above  one-half  of 
these  were  deputies  from  towns.  (M.  Secousse,  Pref.  a  Ordon.,  torn.  iii. 
p.  48.)  It  appears  that  in  all  the  different  assemblies  of  the  states  held 
during  the  reign  of  John,  the  representatives  of  towns  had  great  influence, 
and  in  every  respect  the  tliird  state  was  considered  as  co-ordinate  and  equal 
to  either  of  the  other  two.  (Ibid.,  passim.)  These  spirited  efforts  were 
made  in  France  long  before  the  House  of  Commons  in  England  acquired 
any  considerable  influence  in  the  legislature.  As  the  feudal  system  was 
carried  to  its  utmost  height  in  France  sooner  than  in  England,  so  it  began 
to  decline  sooner  in  the  former  than  in  the  latter  kingdom.  In  England, 
almost  all  attempts  to  establish  or  to  extend  the  liberty  of  the  people  have 
been  successful ;  in  France,  they  have  proved  unfortunate.  What  were 
the  accidental  events  or  political  causes  which  occasioned  this  difference  it 
ia  not  my  present  business  to  inquire. 

Note  XX.— Sect  I.  p.  40. 

In  a  former  Note  [No.  VIII.]  I  have  inquired  into  the  condition  of  that 
part  of  the  people  which  was  employed  in  agriculture,  and  have  represented 
the  various  hardships  and  calamities  of  their  situation.  When  charters  of 
liberty  or  manumission  were  granted  to  such  persons,  they  contained  four 
concessions  corresponding  to  the  four  capital  grievances  to  which  men  in  a 
state  of  servitude  are  subject.  1.  The  right  of  disposing  of  their  persona 


222  PKOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  [NOTE  xx. 

by  sale  or  grant  was  relinquished.  2.  Power  was  given  to  them  of  con- 
veying their  property  and  effects  by  will  or  any  other  legal  deed.  Or  if 
they  happened  to  die  intestate,  it  was  provided  that  their  property  should 
go  to  their  lawful  heirs,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  property  of  other 
persons.  3.  The  services  and  taxes  which  they  owed  to  their  superior  or 
liege-lord,  which  were  formerly  arbitrary  and  imposed  at  pleasure,  are 
precisely  ascertained.  4.  They  are  allowed  the  privilege  of  marrying 
according  to  their  own  inclination  :  formerly  they  could  contract  no  mar- 
riage without  their  lord's  permission,  and  with  no  person  but  one  of  his 
slaves.  All  these  particulars  are  found  united  in  the  charter  granted 
"  HabitatoriLus  Montis  Britonis,"  A.D.  1376.  (Hist,  de  Dauphind,  torn.  i. 
p.  81.)  Many  circumstances  concurred  with  those  wliich  I  have  men- 
tioned in  the  text  in  procuring  them  deliverance  from  that  wretched  state. 
The  gentle  spirit  of  the  Christian  religion,  the  doctrines  which  it  teaches 
concerning  the  original  equality  of  mankind,  its  tenets  with  respect  to  the 
divine  government  and  the  impartial  eye  with  which  the  Almighty  regards 
men  of  every  condition  and  admits  them  to  a  participation  of  his  benefits, 
are  all  inconsistent  with  servitude.  But  in  this,  as  in  many  other 
instances,  considerations  i  if  interest  and  the  maxims  of  false  policy  led  men 
to  a  conduct  inconsistent  with  their  principles.  They  were  so  sensible, 
however,  of  this  inconsistency,  that  to  set  their  fellow-Christians  at  liberty 
from  servitude  was  deemed  an  act  of  piety  highly  meritorious  and  accept- 
able to  Heaven.  The  humane  spirit  of  the  Christian  religion  struggled 
long  with  the  maxims  and  manners  of  the  world,  and  contributed  more 
than  any  other  circumstance  to  introduce  the  practice  of  manumission.  When 
Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  who  flourished  towards  the  end  of  the  sixth 
century,  granted  liberty  to  some  of  his  slaves,  he  gives  this  reason  for  it : 
"  Cum  Redemptor  noster,  totius  conditor  naturae,  ad  hoc  propitiatus 
humanam  carnem  voluerit  assumere,  ut  divinitatis  suae  gratia,  dirempto 
(quo  tenebamur  captivi)  vinculo,  pristinse  nos  restitueret  libertati  ;  salu- 
briter  agitur,  si  homines,  quos  ab  initio  liberos  natura  protulit,  et  jus 
gentium  jugo  substituit  servitutis,  in  ea,  qua  nati  fuerant,  manumittentis 
beneficio,  libertati  reddantur."  (Gregor.  Magn.,  ap.  Potgiess.,  lib.  iv.  c.  i, 
§  3.)  Several  laws  or  charters  founded  on  reasons  similar  to  this  are  pro- 
duced by  the  same  author.  Accordingly,  a  great  part  of  the  charters  of 
manumission,  previous  to  the  reign  of  Loiiis  X.,  are  granted  "pro  amore 
Dei,  pro  remedio  animse,  et  pro  mercede  animse."  (Murat.,  Antiq.  Ital., 
vol.  i.  pp.  849,  850  ;  Du  Cange,  voc.  Manumissio.)  The  formality  of 
manumission  was  executed  in  a  church,  as  a  religious  solemnity.  The 
person  to  be  set  free  was  led  round  the  great  altar  with  a  torch  in  his  hand, 
he  took  hold  of  the  horns  of  the  altar,  and  there  the  solemn  words  con- 
ferring liberty  were  pronounced.  (Du  Cange,  ibid.,  vol.  iv.  p.  467.)  I 
shall  transcribe  a  part  of  a  charter  of  manumission  granted  A.D.  1056,  both 
as  it  contains  a  full  account  of  the  ceremonies  used  in  this  form  of  manu- 
mission, and  as  a  specimen  of  the  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  Latin  tongue 
in  that  barbarous  age.  It  is  granted  by  Willa,  the  widow  of  Hugo,  the 
duke  and  marquis,  in  favour  of  Clariza,  one  of  her  slaves.  "  Et  ideo  noa 
Domina  Wille  inclite  cometisse — libera  et  absolve  te  Cleriza  filia  Uberto — 
pro  timore  omnipotentis  Dei,  et  remedio  luminarie  anime  bone  memorie 
quondam  supra  scripto  Domini  Ugo  gloriossissimo?  ut  quando  ilium  Domi- 


NOTE  xx.]  PROOFS  AND   ILLUSTRATIONS.  223 

mis  de  hac  vita  migrare  jusserit,  pars  iniqua  non  abeat  potestatem  ullam, 
sed  anguelus  Domini  nostri  Jesu  Christi  colocare  dignitur  ilium  inter 
sanctos  dilectos  suos  ;  et  beatus  Petrus  princips  apostolorum,  qui  habed 
potestatem  omnium  animarum  ligandi  et  absolvendi,  ut  ipsi  absolvat 
iinimce  ejus  de  peccatis  sui,  aperiad  ilium  janua  paradisi ;  pro  eadem  vero 
r  itioni,  in  mano  mite  te,  Benzo  presbiter,  ut  vadat  tecum  in  ecclesia  sancti 
Bartholomaei  apostoli ;  traad  de  tribus  vicibus  circa  altare  ipsius  ecclesise 
cum  caereo  apprehensum  in  manibus  tuis  et  manibus  suis ;  deiride  exite 
ambulate  in  via  quadrubio,  ubi  quatuor  vie  se  dividuntur.  Statimque  pro 
remedio  luminarie  anime  bone  memorie  quondam  supra  scripto  Domini 
Ugo  et  ipsi  presbiter  Benzo  fecit  omnia,  et  dixit,  Ecce  quatuor  vie,  ite  et 
ambulate  in  quacunque  partem  tibi  placuerit,  tam  sic  supra  scripta  Cleriza, 
qua  nosque  tui  heredes,  qui  ab  ac  hora  in  antea  nati,  vel  procreati  fuerit 
utriusque  sexus,"  etc.  (Murat.,  ibid.,  p.  853. )  Many  other  charters 
might  have  been  selected  which  in  point  of  grammar  or  style  are  in  no 
wise  superior  to  this.  Manumission  was  frequently  granted  on  death-bed 
or  by  latter  will.  As  the  minds  of  men  are  at  that  time  awakened  to 
sentiments  of  humanity  and  piety,  these  deeds  proceeded  from  religious 
motives,  and  were  granted  pro  redemptione  animce,  in  order  to  obtain 
acceptance  with  God.  (Du  Cange,  ubi  supra,  p.  470,  et.  voc.  Servus, 
vol.  vi.  p.  451.)  Another  method  of  obtaining  liberty  was  by  entering 
into  holy  orders,  or  taking  the  vow  in  a  monastery.  This  was  permitted 
for  some  time ;  but  so  many  slaves  escaped,  by  this  means,  out  of  the 
hands  of  their  masters,  that  the  practice  was  afterwards  restrained,  and  at 
last  prohibited,  by  the  laws  of  almost  all  the  nations  of  Europe.  (Murat., 
ibid.,  p.  842.)  Conformably  to  the  same  principles,  princes,  on  the  birth 
of  a  son,  or  upon  any  other  agreeable  event,  appointed  a  certain  number 
of  slaves  to  be  enfranchised,  as  a  testimony  of  their  gratitude  to  God  for 
that  benefit.  (Marculfi  Form.,  lib.  i.  cap.  39.)  There  are  several  forms 
of  manumission  published  by  Marculfus,  and  all  of  them  are  founded  on 
i-eligious  considerations,  in  order  to  procure  the  favour  of  God  or  to  obtain 
the  forgiveness  of  their  sins.  (Lib.  ii.  c.  23,  33,  34,  edit.  Baluz.)  The 
same  observation  holds  with  respect  to  the  other  collections  of  Formulae 
annexed  to  Marculfus.  As  sentiments  of  religion  induced  some  to  grant 
liberty  to  their  fellow-Christians  who  groaned  under  the  yoke  of  servitude, 
so  mistaken  ideas  concerning  devotion  led  others  to  relinquish  their  liberty. 
When  a  person  conceived  an  extraordinary  respect  for  the  saint  who  was 
the  patron  of  any  church  or  monastery  in  which  he  was  accustomed  to 
attend  religious  worship,  it  was  not  unusual,  among  men  possessed  with 
an  excess  of  superstitious  reverence,  to  give  up  themselves  and  their  pos- 
terity to  be  the  slaves  of  the  saint  (Mabillon,  De  Re  Diplomat,  lib.  vi. 
p.  63^.)  The  oblati,  or  voluntary  slaves  of  churches  or  monasteries,  were 
very  numerous,  and  may  be  divided  into  three  different  classes.  The  first 
were  such  as  put  themselves  and  effects  under  the  protection  of  a  particular 
church  or  monastery,  binding  themselves  to  defend  its  privileges  and  pro- 
perty against  every  aggressor.  These  were  prompted  to  do  so  not  merely 
by  devotion,  but  in  order  to  obtain  that  security  which  arose  from  the 
protection  of  the  Church.  They  were  rather  vassals  than  slaves,  and 
sometimes  persons  of  noble  birth  found  it  prudent  to  secure  the  protection 
of  the  Church  in  this  manner.  Persons  of  the  second  class  bound  them- 


224  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  [NOTE  ** 

selves  to  pay  an  annual  tax  or  quit-rent  out  of  their  estates  to  a  church  or 
monastery.       Besides  this,    they  sometimes  engaged  to  perform   certain 
services.     They  were  called  censuales.     The  last  class  consisted  of  such  as 
actually  renounced  their  liberty  and  became  slaves  in  the  strict  and  proper 
sense  of  the  word.     These  were  called  minister idles,  and  enslaved  their 
bodies,  as  some  of  the  charters  bear,  that  they  might  procure  the  liberty 
Df  their  souls.      (Potgiesserus,  De  Statu  Servorum,  lib.  L  c.  1,  §§  6,  7.) 
How  zealous  the  clergy  were  to  encourage  the  opinions  which  led  to  this 
practice,  will  appear  from  a  clause  in  a  charter  by  which  one  gives  up 
himself  as  a  slave  to  a  monastery  :  "  Cum  sit  omni  carnali  ingenuitate 
generosius  extremum  quodcumque   Dei  servitium,   scilicet  quod  terrena 
nobilitas  multos  plerumque  vitiorum  servos  ftx.'it,  servi^us  vero  Christi 
nobiles  virtutibus  reddit,  nemo  autem  sani  capitis  virtutil  as  vitia  compara- 
verit,  claret  pro  certo  eum  esse  generosiorem,  qui  se  Dei  servitio  prsebuerit 
proniorem.      Quod  ego  Ragnaldus  intelligens,"  etc.     Another  charter  is 
expressed  in  the  following  words  :  "  Eligens  magis  esse  servus  Dei  quam 
libertus  sseculi,  firmiter  credens  et  sciens,  quod  servire  Deo,  regnare  est, 
summaque  ingenuitas  sit  in  qua  servitus  comparabatur  Christi,"  etc.      (Du 
Gauge,  voc.    Oblatus,  vol.  iv.  pp.    128(5,  1287.)     Great,  however,  as  the 
power  of  religion  was,  it  does  not  appear  that  the  enfranchisement  of  slaves 
was  a  frequent  practice  while  the  feudal  system  preserved  its  vigour.      On 
the  contrary,  there  were  laws  which  set  bounds  to  it,  as  detrimental  to 
society.      (Potgiess.,  lib.  iv.  c.  ii.  §  6.)     The  inferior  order  of  men  owed 
the  recovery  of  their  liberty  to  the  decline  of  that  aristocratical  policy 
which  lodged  the  most  extensive  power  in  the  hands  of  a  few  members  of 
the  society  and  depressed  all  the  rest.     When  Louis  X.  issued  his  ordi- 
nance, several  slaves  had  been  so  long  accustomed  to  servitude,  and  their 
minds  were  so  much  debased  by  that  unhappy  situation,  that  they  refused 
to  accept  of  the  liberty  which  was  offered  them.      (D'Ach.,  SpiciL,  vol.  xi. 
p.  387.)     Long  after  the  reign  of  Louis  X.  several  of  the  French  nobility 
continued  to  assert  their  ancient  dominion  over  their  slaves.      It  appears 
from  an  ordinance  of  the  famous  Bertrand  de  Guesclin,  constable  of  France, 
that  the  custom  of  enfranchising  them  was  considered  as  a  pernicious  inno- 
vation.     (Morice,  Me'm.  pour  servir  de  Preuves  a  1'Hist.  de  Bret.,  torn.  ii. 
p.  100.)     In  some  instances,  when  the  prsedial  slaves  were  declared  to  be 
freemen,  they  were  still  bound  to  perform  certain  services  to  their  ancient 
masters,  and  were  kept  in  a  state  different  from  other  subjects,  being  re- 
stricted either  from  purchasing  land  or  becoming  members  of  a  community 
within    the   precincts  of   the  manor  to   which  they  formerly  belonged. 
(Martene  et  Durand,  Thesaur.  Anecdot.,  vol.  i.  p.  914.)     This,  however, 
«ems  not  to  have  been  common.     There  is  no  general  law  for  the  manu- 
mission of  slaves  in  the  Statute-book  of  England,  similar  to  that  which 
has  been  quotad  from  the  Ordonnances  of  the  kings  of  France.      Though 
the  genius  of  the  English  constitution  seems  early  to  have  favoured  per- 
sonal liberty,  personal  servitude,  nevertheless,  continued  long  in  England 
in  some  particular  places.      In  the  year  1514  we  find  a  charter  of  Henry 
VIII.  enfranchising  two  slaves  belonging  to  one  of  his  manors.   (Rym., 
Feeder.,  vol.  xiii.  p.  470.)     As  late  as  the  year  1574,  there  is  a  commission 
from  Queen  Elizabeth  with  respect  to  the  manumission  of  certain  bondmen 
belonging  to  her.     Rymer,  in  Observat.  on  the  Statutes,  etc.,  p.  251 


NOTB  xxi.]  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  226 


NOTE  XXI. — Sect.  I.  p.  46. 

There  is  no  custom  in  the  Middle  Ages  more  singular  than  that  of 
private  war.  It  is  a  right  of  so  great  importance,  and  prevailed  so  uni- 
versally, that  the  regulations  concerning  it  occupy  a  considerable  place  in 
the  system  of  laws  during  the  Middle  Ages.  M.  de  Montesquieu,  who 
has  unravelled  so  many  intricate  points  in  feudal  jurisprudence  and  thrown 
light  on  so  many  customs  formerly  obscure  and  unintelligible,  was  not  led 
by  his  subject  to  consider  this.  I  shall  therefore  give  a  more  minute 
account  of  the  customs  and  regulations  which  directed  a  practice  so  con- 
trary to  the  present  ideas  of  civilised  nations  concerning  government  and 
order.  1.  Among  the  ancient  Germans,  as  well  as  other  nations  in  a 
similar  state  of  society,  the  right  of  avenging  injuries  was  a  private  and 
personal  right  exercised  by  force  of  arms,  without  any  reference  to  an 
umpire  or  any  appeal  to  a  magistrate  for  decision.  The  clearest  proofs  of 
this  were  produced,  Note  VI.  2.  This  practice  subsisted  among  the 
barbarous  nations  after  their  settlement  in  the  provinces  of  the  empire 
which  they  conquered ;  and  as  the  causes  of  dissension  among  them  mul- 
tiplied, their  family  feuds  and  private  wars  became  more  frequent.  Proofs 
of  this  occur  in  their  early  historians  (Greg.  Turon.,  Hist,  lib.  vii.  c.  2, 
lib.  viii  c.  18,  lib.  x.  c.  27),  and  likewise  in  the  codes  of  their  laws.  It 
was  not  only  allowable  for  the  relations  to  avenge  the  injuries  of  their 
family,  but  it  was  incumbent  on  them.  Thus,  by  the  laws  of  the  Angli 
and  Werini,  "  ad  quemcunque  hereditas  terrse  pervenerit,  ad  ilium  vest  is 
bellica,  id  est  lorica  et  ultio  proxiini,  et  solatio  leudis,  debet  pertinere" 
(tit.  vi.  §  5,  ap.  Lindenbr.,  Leg.  Saliq.,  tit.  63  ;  Leg.  Longob.,  lib.  iL  tit. 
14,  §  10).  3.  None  but  gentlemen,  or  persons  of  noble  birth,  had  the 
right  of  private  war.  All  disputes  between  slaves,  villani,  the  inhabitants 
of  towns,  and  freemen  of  inferior  condition,  were  decided  in  the  courts  of 
justice.  All  disputes  between  gentlemen  and  persons  of  inferior  rank 
were  terminated  in  the  same  manner.  The  right  of  private  war  supposed 
nobility  of  birth  and  equality  of  rank  in  both  the  contending  parties. 
(Befiumanoir,  Coustumes  de  Beauv.,  ch.  lix.  p.  300 ;  Ordon.  des  Rois  de 
France,  torn,  ii.  p.  395,  §  xvii  p.  508,  §  xv.,  etc.)  The  dignified  eccle- 
siastics likewise  claimed  and  exercised  the  right  of  private  war ;  but,  as  it 
was  not  altogether  decent  for  them  to  prosecute  quarrels  in  person,  advocati 
or  vidames  were  chosen  by  the  several  monasteries  or  bishoprics.  These 
were  commonly  men  of  high  rank  and  reputation,  who  became  the  pro- 
tectors of  the  churches  and  convents  by  which  they  were  elected  ;  espoused 
their  quarrels,  and  fought  their  battles  ;  "  armis  omnia  quse  erant  ecclesiae 
viriliter  defendebant,  et  vigilanter  protegebant."  (Brussel,  Usage  dei 
Fiefs,  torn.  i.  p.  144;  Du  Cange,  voc.  Advocatus.)  On  many  occasions 
the  martial  ideas  to  which  ecclesiastics  of  noble  birth  were  accustomed 
made  them  forget  the  pacific  spirit  of  their  profession,  and  led  them  into 
the  field  in  person  at  the  head  of  their  vassals  :  "  flamma,  ferro,  csede, 
possessiones  ecclesiarum  prrelati  defendebant."  (Guido  Abbas,  ap.  Du 
Cange,  ibid.,  p.  179.)  4.  It  was  not  every  injury  or  trespass  that  gave  a 
gentleman  a  title  to  make  war  upon  his  adversary.  Atrocious  acts  of 
violence,  insults,  and  affronts,  publicly  committed,  were  legal  and  per 
VOL.  i.  Q 


226  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  [NOTE  xxi. 

raitted  motives  for  taking  arms  against  the  authors  of  them.  Such  crimes 
as  are  now  punished  capitally  in  civilised  nations  at  that  time  justified 
private  hostilities.  (Beauman.,  ch.  lix.  ;  Du  Cange,  Dissert.  XXIX.,  sur 
Joinville,  p.  331.)  But  though  the  avenging  of  injuries  was  the  only 
motive  that  could  legally  authorise  a  private  war,  yet  disputes  concerning 
civil  property  often  gave  rise  to  hostilities  and  were  terminated  by  the 
sword.  (Du  Cange,  Dissert.,  p.  332.)  5.  All  persons  present  when 
any  quarrel  arose  or  any  act  of  violence  was  committed  were  included  in 
the  war  which  it  occasioned  ;  for  it  was  supposed  to  be  impossible  for  any 
man  in  such  a  situation  to  remain  neuter,  without  taking  side  with  one  or 
other  of  the  contending  parties.  (Beauman.,  p.  300.)  6.  All  the  kindred 
of  the  two  principals  in  the  war  were  included  in  it,  and  obliged  to  espouse 
the  quarrel  of  the  chieftain  with  whom  they  were  connected.  (Du  Cange, 
ibid.,  p.  332.)  This  was  founded  on  the  maxim  of  the  ancient  Germans, 
"  suscipere  tarn  inimicitias  seu  patris,  seu  propinqui,  quam  amicitias, 
necesse  est ; "  a  maxim  natural  to  all  rude  nations,  among  which  the  form 
of  society,  and  political  union,  strengthen  such  a  sentiment.  This  obliga- 
tion-was enforced  by  legal  authority.  If  a  person  refused  to  take  part  in 
the  quarrel  of  his  kinsman  and  to  aid  him  against  his  adversary,  he  was 
deemed  to  have  renounced  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  kindredship, 
and  became  incapable  of  succeeding  to  any  of  his  relations,  or  of  deriving 
any  benefit  from  any  civil  right  or  property  belonging  to  them.  (Du  Gauge, 
Dissert.,  p.  333.)  The  method  of  ascertaining  the  degree  of  affinity  which 
obliged  a  person  to  take  part  in  the  quarrel  of  a  kinsman  was  curious. 
While  the  Church  prohibited  the  marriage  of  persons  within  the  seventh 
degree  of  affinity,  the  vengeance  of  private  war  extended  as  far  as  this 
absurd  prohibition,  and  all  who  had  such  a  remote  connection  with  any  of 
the  principals  were  involved  in  the  calamities  of  war.  But  when  the 
Church  relaxed  somewhat  of  its  rigour,  and  did  not  extend  its  prohibition 
of  marrying  beyond  the  fourth  degree  of  affinity,  the  same  restriction  took 
place  in  the  conduct  of  private  war.  (Beauman.,  p.  303  ;  Du  Cange, 
Dissert.,  p.  333.)  7.  A  private  war  could  not  be  carried  on  between  two 
full  brothers,  because  both  have  the  same  common  kindred,  and  conse- 
quently neither  had  any  persons  bound  to  stand  by  him  against  the  other 
in  the  contest ;  but  two  brothers  of  the  half-blood  might  wage  war,  because 
each  of  them  has  a  distinct  kindred.  (Beauman.,  p.  299.)  8.  The  vassals 
of  each  principal  in  any  private  war  were  involved  in  the  contest,  because, 
by  the  feudal  maxims,  they  were  bound  to  take  arms  in  defence  of  the 
chieftain  of  whom  they  held,  and  to  assist  him  in  every  quarrel.  As  soon, 
therefore,  as  feudal  tenures  were  introduced,  and  this  artificial  connection 
was  established  between  vassals  and  the  baron  of  whom  they  held,  vassals 
came  to  be  considered  as  in  the  same  state  with  relations.  (Beauman., 
p.  303.)  9.  Private  wars  were  very  frequent  for  several  centuries. 
Nothing  contributed  more  to  increase  those  disorders  in  government  or  to 
encourage  such  ferocity  of  manners  as  reduced  the  nations  of  Europe  to 
that  wretched  state  which  distinguished  the  period  of  history  which  I  am 
reviewing.  Nothing  was  such  an  obstacle  to  the  introduction  of  a  regular 
administration  of  justice.  Nothing  could  more  effectually  discourage 
industry  or  retard  the  progress  and  cultivation  of  the  arts  of  peace.  Private 
wans  were  earned  on  with  all  the  destructive  rage  which  is  to  be  dreaded 


NOTE  xxi.]          PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  227 

from  violent  resentment  when  armed  with  force  and  authorised  by  law. 
It  appears  from  the  statutes  prohibiting  or  restraining  the  exercise  of 
private  hostilities  that  the  invasion  of  the  most  barbarous  enemy  could  not 
be  more  desolating  to  a  country,  or  more  fatal  to  its  inhabitants,  than 
those  intestine  wars.  (Ordon.,  torn.  i.  p.  701,  torn.  ii.  pp.  395,  408,  507, 
etc.)  The  contemporary  historians  describe  the  excesses  committed  in 
prosecution  of  these  quarrels  in  such  terms  as  excite  astonishment  and 
horror.  I  shall  mention  only  one  passage  from  the  History  of  the  Holy 
War,  by  Guibert,  abbot  of  Nogent :  "  Erat  eo  tempore,  maximis  ad 
invicem  hostilitatibus,  totius  Francorum  regni  facta  turbatio  ;  crebra  uhique 
latrocinia,  viarum  obsessio ;  audiebantur  passim,  immo  tiebant  inceiulia 
infinita ;  nullis  prater  sola  et  indomita  cupiditate  existentibus  causis, 
extruebantur  prselia ;  et  ut  brevi  totum  claudam,  quicquid  obtutibus 
cupidorum  subjacebat,  nusquam  attendendo  cujus  esset,  prasdee  patebat." 
Gesta  Dei  per  Francos,  vol.  i.  p.  482. 

Having  thus  collected  the  chief  regulations  which  custom  had  established 
concerning  the  right  and  exercise  of  private  war,  I  shall  enumerate,  in 
chronological  order,  the  various  expedients  employed  to  abolish  or  restrain 
this  fatal  custom.  1.  The  first  expedient  employed  by  the  civil  magis- 
trate, in  order  to  set  some  bounds  to  the  violence  of  private  revenge,  was 
the  fixing  by  law  the  fine  or  composition  to  be  paid  for  each  different 
crime.  The  injured  person  was  originally  the  sole  judge  concerning  the 
nature  of  the  wrong  which  he  had  suffered,  the  degree  of  vengeance  which 
he  should  exact,  as  well  as  the  species  of  atonement  or  reparation  with 
which  he  might  rest  satisfied.  Resentment  became,  of  course,  as  implacable 
as  it  was  fierce.  It  was  often  a  point  of  honour  not  to  forgive,  nor  to  be 
reconciled.  This  made  it  necessary  to  fix  those  compositions  which  make 
so  great  a  figure  in  the  laws  of  barbarous  nations.  The  nature  of  crimes 
and  offences  was  estimated  by  the  magistrate,  and  the  sum  due  to  the 
person  offended  was  ascertained  with  a  minute,  and  often  a  whimsical, 
accuracy.  Rotharis,  the  legislator  of  the  Lombards,  who  reigned  about 
the  middle  of  the  seventh  century,  discovers  his  intention  both  in  ascer- 
taining the  composition  to  be  paid  by  the  offender  and  in  increasing  its 
value  :  it  is,  says  he,  that  the  enmity  may  be  extinguished,  the  prosecu- 
tion may  cease,  and  peace  may  be  restored.  (Leg.  Longob.,  bib.  i.  tit.  7, 
§  10.)  2.  About  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century,  Charlemagne  struck 
at  the  root  of  the  evil,  and  enacted  "  That  when  any  person  had  been 
guilty  of  a  crime,  or  had  committed  an  outrage,  he  should  immediately 
submit  to  the  penance  which  the  Church  imposed,  and  offer  to  pay  the 
composition  which  the  law  prescribed ;  and  if  the  injured  person  or  his 
kindred  should  refuse  to  accept  of  this,  and  presume  to  avenge  themselves 
by  force  of  arms,  their  lands  and  properties  should  be  forfeited."  (CapituL, 
\.D.  802,  edit.  Baluz.,  vol.  i.  p.  371.)  3.  But  in  this,  as  well  as  in  other 
regulations,  the  genius  of  Charlemagne  advanced  before  the  spirit  of  his 
age.  The  ideas  of  his  contemporaries  concerning  regular  government  were 
too  imperfect,  and  their  manners  too  tierce,  to  submit  to  this  law.  Private 
ware,  with  all  the  calamities  which  they  occasioned,  became  more  frequent 
than  ever  after  the  death  of  that  great  monarch.  His  successors  were 
unable  to  restrain  them.  The  Church  found  it  necessary  to  interpose. 
The  most  early  of  these  interpositions  now  extant  is  towards  the  end  of 

Q  li 


228  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  [NOTE  xxi. 

the  tenth  century.  In  the  year  990,  several  bishops  in  the  south  of 
France  assembled,  and  published  various  regulations  in  order  to  set  some 
bounds  to  the  violence  and  frequency  of  private  wars  :  if  any  person 
within  their  dioceses  should  venture  to  transgress,  they  ordained  that  he 
should  be  excluded  from  all  Christian  privileges  during  his  life,  and  be 
denied  Christian  burial  after  his  death.  (Du  Mont,  Corps  Diplomatique, 
torn.  i.  p.  41.)  These,  however,  were  only  partial  remedies;  and  there- 
fore a  council  was  held  at  Limoges,  A.D.  994.  The  bodies  of  the  saints, 
according  to  the  custom  of  those  ages,  were  carried  thither ;  and  by  these 
sacred  relics  men  were  exhorted  to  lay  down  their  arms,  to  extinguish  their 
animosities,  and  to  swear  that  they  would  not,  for  the  future,  violate  the 
public  peace  by  their  private  hostilities.  (Bouquet,  Recueil  des  Histor., 
vol.  x.  pp.  49,  147.)  Several  other  councils  issued  decrees  to  the  same 
effect.  (Du  Cange,  Dissert.,  343.)  4.  But  the  authority  of  councils, 
how  venerable  soever  in  those  ages,  was  not  sufficient  to  abolish  a  custom 
which  flattered  the  pride  of  the  nobles  and  gratified  their  favourite 
passions.  The  evil  grew  so  intolerable  that  it  became  necessary  to  employ 
supernatural  means  for  suppressing  it.  A  bishop  of  Aquitaine,  A.D.  1032, 
pretended  that  an  angel  had  appeared  to  him  and  brought  him  a  writing 
from  Heaven,  enjoining  men  to  cease  from  their  hostilities  and  to  be  recon- 
ciled to  each  other.  It  was  during  a  season  of  public  calamity  that  he 
published  this  revelation.  The  minds  of  men  were  disposed  to  receive 
pious  impressions,  and  willing  to  perform  anything  in  order  to  avert  the 
wrath  of  Heaven.  A  general  peace  and  cessation  from  hostilities  took 
place,  and  continued  for  seven  years  ;  and  a  resolution  was  formed  that  no 
man  should,  in  times  to  come,  attack  or  molest  his  ac'verwvies  during  the 
seasons  set  apart  for  celebrating  the  great  festivals  of  the  Church,  or  from 
the  evening  of  Thursday  in  each  week  to  the  morning  of  Monday  in  the 
week  ensuing,  the  intervening  days  being  considered  particularly  holy,  our 
Lord's  passion  having  happened  on  one  of  these  days,  and  his  resurrection 
on  another.  A  change  in  the  dispositions  of  men  so  sudden,  and  which 
produced  a  resolution  so  unexpected,  was  considered  as  miraculous  ;  and  the 
respite  from  hostilities  which  followed  upon  it  was  called  the  truce  of  God. 
(Glaber.  Rodulphus,  Histor.,  lib.  v.,  ap.  Bouquet,  vol.  x.  p.  59.)  This, 
from  being  a  regulation  or  concert  in  one  kingdom,  became  a  general  law 
in  Christendom,  was  confirmed  by  the  authority  of  several  popes,  and  the 
violators  were  subjected  to  the  penalty  of  excommunication.  (Corpus  Jur. 
Canon.  Decretal.,  lib.  i.  tit.  34,  c.  1 ;  Du  Cange,  Glossar.,  voc.  Treuga.) 
An  act  of  the  council  of  Toulujes  in  Roussillon,  A.D.  1041,  containing  all 
the  stipulations  required  by  the  truce  of  God,  is  published  by  Dom  de  Vic 
et  Dom  Vaisette,  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  torn,  ii.,  Preuves,  p.  206.  A  cessa- 
tion from  hostilities  during  three  complete  days  in  every  week  allowed 
such  a  considerable  space  for  the  passions  of  the  antagonists  to  cool,  and 
for  the  people  to  enjoy  a  respite  from  the  calamities  of  war,  as  well  as  to 
take  measures  for  their  own  security,  that  if  this  truce  of  God  had  been 
exactly  observed  it  must  have  gone  far  towards  putting  an  end  to  private 
wars.  This,  however,  seems  not  to  have  been  the  case :  the  nobles,  dis- 
regarding the  truce,  prosecuted  their  quarrels  without  interruption,  as 
formerly.  "  Qua  nimirum  tempestate,  universse  provinciee  adeo  devasta- 
tionis  continuae  importunitate  inquietantur,  ut  ne  ipsa,  pro  observatione 


xxi.]  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  229 

divinae  pacis,  professa  sacramenta  custodian tur."  (Abbas  Uspurgensis, 
apud  Datt.,  de  Pace  Imperil  Publica,  p.  13,  no.  35.)  The  violent  spirit 
of  the  nobility  could  not  be  restrained  by  any  engagements.  The  com- 
plaints of  this  were  frequent ;  and  bishops,  in  order  to  compel  them  to 
renew  their  vows  and  promises  of  ceasing  from  their  private  wars,  were 
obliged  to  enjoin  their  clergy  to  suspend  the  performance  of  divine  service 
and  the  exercise  of  any  religious  function  within  the  parishes  of  such  aa 
were  refractory  and  obstinate.  (Hist,  de  Langued.,  par  D.  D.  de  Vic  et 
Vaisette,  torn,  ii.,  Preuves,  p.  118.)  5.  The  people,  eager  to  obtain  relief 
from  their  sufferings,  called  in  a  second  time  revelation  to  their  aid. 
Towards  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  a  carpenter  in  Guienne  gave  out 
that  Jesus  Christ,  together  with  the  blessed  Virgin,  had  appeared  to  him, 
and  having  commanded  him  to  exhort  mankind  to  peace,  had  given  him, 
as  a  proof  of  his  mission,  an  image  of  the  Virgin,  holding  her  Son  in  her 
arms,  with  this  inscription,  Lamb  of  God,  who  takest  away  the  sins  of  the 
world,  give  us  peace.  This  low  fanatic  addressed  himself  to  an  ignorant 
age,  prone  to  credit  what  was  marvellous.  He  was  received  as  an  inspired 
messenger  of  God.  Many  prelates  and  barons  assembled  at  Puy  and  took 
an  oath  not  only  to  make  peace  with  all  their  enemies,  but  to  attack  such 
as  refused  to  lay  down  their  arms  and  to  be  reconciled  to  their  enemies. 
They  formed  an  association  for  this  purpose,  and  assumed  the  honourable 
name  of  the  brotherhood  of  God.  (Robertus  de  Monte  Michaele,  ap.  M.  de 
Lauriere,  Prdf.,  torn,  i.,  Orel  on.,  p.  29.)  But  the  influence  of  this  super- 
stitious terror  or  devotion  was  not  of  long  continuance.  6.  The  civil 
magistrate  was  obliged  to  exert  his  authority  in  order  to  check  a  custom 
which  threatened  a  dissolution  of  government.  Philip  Augustus,  as  some 
imagine,  or  St.  Louis,  as  is  more  probable,  published  an  ordinance, 
A.D.  1245,  prohibiting  any  person  to  commence  hostilities  against  the 
friends  and  vassals  of  his  adversary  until  forty  days  after  the  commission 
of  the  crime  or  pffence  which  gave  rise  to  the  quarrel :  declaring  that  if 
any  man  presumed  to  transgress  this  statute,  he  should  be  considered  as 
guilty  of  a  breach  of  the  public  peace  and  be  tried  and  punished  by  the 
judge  ordinary  as  a  traitor.  (Ordon.,  torn.  i.  p.  56.)  This  was  called 
the  royal  truce,  and  afforded  time  for  the  violence  of  resentment  to  subside, 
as  well  as  leisure  for  the  good  offices  of  such  as  were  willing  to  compose 
the  difference.  The  happy  effects  of  this  regulation  seem  to  have  been 
considerable,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  solicitude  of  succeeding  monarchs 
to  enforce  it.  7.  In  order  to  restrain  the  exercise  of  private  war  still 
farther,  Philip  the  Fair,  towards  the  close  of  the  same  century,  A.D.  1296, 
published  an  ordinance  commanding  all  private  hostilities  to  cease  while 
he  was  engaged  in  war  against  the  enemies  of  the  state.  (Ordon.,  torn,  i 
pp.  328,  390.)  This  regulation,  which  seems  to  be  almost  essential  to 
the  existence  and  preservation  of  society,  was  often  renewed  by  his  suc- 
cessors, and,  being  enforced  by  the  regal  authority,  proved  a  considerable 
check  to  the  destructive  contests  of  the  nobles.  Both  these  regulations, 
introduced  first  in  France,  were  adopted  by  the  other  nations  of  Europe. 
8.  The  evil,  however,  was  so  inveterate  that  it  did  not  yield  to  all  these 
remedies.  No  sooner  was  public  peace  established  in  any  kingdom  than 
the  barons  renewed  their  private  hostilities.  They  not  only  struggled  to 
maintain  this  pernicio'is  right,  but  to  secure  the  exercise  of  it  without  any 


230  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  [NOTE  XXL 

restraint.  Upon  the  death  of  Philip  the  Fair,  the  nobles  of  different 
provinces  in  France  formed  associations,  and  presented  remonstrances  to 
his  successor  demanding  the  repeal  of  several  laws  by  which  he  had 
abridged  the  privileges  of  their  order.  Among  these  the  right  of  private- 
war  is  always  mentioned  as  one  of  the  most  valuable  ;  and  they  claim  that 
the  restraint  imposed  by  the  truce  of  God,  the  royal  truce,  as  well  as  tha'; 
arising  from  the  ordinance  of  the  year  1296,  should  be  taken  off.  Ii. 
some  instances  the  two  sons  of  Philip,  who  mounted  the  throne  sue 
cessively,  eluded  their  demands  ;  in  others  they  were  obliged  to  makci 
concessions.  (Ordon.,  torn.  i.  pp.  551,  557,  561,  573.)  The . ordinances 
to  which  I  here  refer  are  of  such  length  that  I  cannot  insert  them  ;  but 
they  are  extremely  curious,  and  may  be  peculiarly  instructive  to  an 
English  reader,  as  they  throw  considerable  light  on  that  period  of  English 
history  in  which  the  attempts  to  circumscribe  the  regal  prerogative  were 
carried  on,  not  by  the  people  straggling  for  liberty,  but  by  the  nobles 
contending  for  power.  It  is  not  necessary  to  produce  any  evidence  of  the 
continuance  and  frequency  of  private  wars  under  the  successors  of  Philip 
the  Fair.  9.  A  practice  somewhat  similar  to  the  royal  truce  was  intro- 
duced in  order  to  strengthen  and  extend  it.  Bonds  of  assurance,  or 
mutual  security,  were  demanded  from  the  parties  at  variance,  by  which 
they  obliged  themselves  to  abstain  from  all  hostilities,  either  during  a  time 
mentioned  in  the  bond,  or  for  ever,  and  became  subject  to  heavy  penalties 
if  they  violated  this  obligation.  These  bonds  were  sometimes  granted 
voluntarily,  but  more  frequently  exacted  by  the  authority  of  the  civil 
magistrate.  Upon  a  petition  from  the  party  who  felt  himself  weakest,  the 
magistrate  summoned  his  adversary  to  appear  in  court  and  obliged  him  to 
give  him  a  bond  of  assurance.  If,  after  that,  he  committed  any  further 
hostilities,  he  became  subject  to  all  the  penalties  of  treason.  This  restraint 
on  private  war  was  known  in  the  age  of  St.  Louis.  (Establissements, 
liv.  i.  c.  28.)  It  was  frequent  in  Bretagne  ;  and,  what  is  very  remarkable, 
such  bonds  of  assurance  were  given  mutually  between  vassals  and  the  lord 
of  whom  they  held.  Oliver  de  Clisson  grants  one  to  the  duke  of  Bretagne, 
his  sovereign.  (Morice,  Me'm.  pour  servir  de  Preuves  a  1'Hist.  de  Bret., 
torn.  i.  p.  846,  torn.  ii.  p.  371.)  Many  examples  of  bonds  of  assurance 
in  other  provinces  of  France  are  collected  by  Brussel  (torn.  iL  p.  856). 
The  nobles  of  Burgundy  remonstrated  against  this  practice,  and  obtained 
exemption  from  it  as  an  encroachment  on  the  privileges  of  their  order. 
(Ordon.,  torn.  i.  p.  558.)  This  mode  of  security  was  first  introduced  into 
cities,  and,  the  good  effects  of  it  having  been  felt  there,  was  extended  to 
the  nobles.  (See  Note  XVI.)  10.  The  calamities  occasioned  by  private 
wars  became  at  some  times  so  intolerable  that  the  nobles  entered  into 
voluntary  associations,  binding  themselves  to  refer  all  matters  in  dispute, 
whether  concerning  civil  property  or  points  of  honour  to  the  determination 
of  the  majority  of  the  associates.  (Morice,  Me'm.  pour  servir  de  Preuves 
a  1'Hist.  de  Bret.,  torn,  ii  p.  728.)  11.  But  all  these  expedients  proving 
ineffectual,  Charles  VI.,  A.D.  1413,  issued  an  ordinance  expressly  pro- 
hibiting private  wars  on  any  pretext  whatsoever,  with  power  to  the  judge 
ordinary  to  compel  all  persons  to  comply  with  this  injunction,  and  to 
punish  such  as  should  prove  refractory  or  disobedient,  by  imprisoning 
their  persons,  seizing  their  goods,  and  appointing  the  officers  of  justice, 


NOTE  xxi.]  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  231 

mcuiageurs  et  gasteurs,  to  live  at  free  quarters  on  their  estate.  If  those 
who  were  disobedient  to  this  edict  could  not  be  personally  arrested,  he 
appointed  their  friends  and  vassals  to  be  seized,  and  detained  until  they 
gave  surety  for  keeping  the  peacp  •  and  he  abolished  all  laws,  customs,  or 
privileges  which  might  be  pleaded  in  opposition  to  this  ordinance. 
(Ordon.,  torn.  x.  p.  138.)  How  slow  is  the  progress  of  reason  and  of  civil 
order  !  Regulations  which  to  us  appear  so  equitable,  obvious,  and  simple 
required  the  efforts  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  authority,  during  several 
centuries,  to  introduce  and  establish  them.  Even  posterior  to  this  period, 
Louis  XL  was  obliged  to  abolish  private  wars  in  Dauphind  by  a  particular 
edict,  A.D.  1451.  Du  Cange,  Dissert.,  p.  348. 

This  note  would  swell  to  a  disproportionate  bulk  if  I  should  attempt 
to  inquire  with  the  same  minute  attention  into  the  progress  of  this  per- 
nicious custom  in  the  other  countries  of  Europe.  In  England  the  ideas 
of  the  Saxons  concerning  personal  revenge,  the  right  of  private  wars,  and 
the  composition  due  to  the  party  offended,  seem  to  have  been  much  the 
same  with  those  which  prevailed  on  the  Continent.  The  law  of  Ina  de 
vindicantibus,  in  the  eighth  century  (Lamb.,  p.  3)  ;  those  of  Edmund  in 
the  tenth  century,  de  homicidio  (Lamb.,  p.  72),  and  de  inimicitiis  (p.  76)  ; 
and  those  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  in  the  eleventh  century,  de  temporibus 
et  diebus  pacw,  or  Treuga  Dei  (Lamb.,  p.  126),  are  perfectly  similar  to  the 
ordonnances  of  the  French  kings  their  contemporaries.  The  laws  of 
Edward,  de  pace  regis,  are  still  more  explicit  than  those  of  the  French 
monarchs,  and,  by  several  provisions  in  them,  discover  that  a  more  perfect 
police  was  established  in  England  at  that  period.  (Lambard,  p.  128,  fol. 
vers.)  Even  after  the  Conquest,  private  wars,  and  the  regulations  for 
preventing  them,  were  not  altogether  unknown,  as  appeal's  from  Madox, 
Formulare  Anglicanum,  No.  CXLV.,  and  from  the  extracts  from  Domes- 
day Book  published  by  Gale,  Scriptores  Hist.  Britan.,  pp.  759,  777. 
The  well-known  clause  in  the  form  of  an  English  indictment,  which,  as 
an  aggravation  of  the  criminal's  guilt,  mentions  his  having  assaulted  a 
person  who  was  in  the  peace  of  God  and  of  the  king,  seems  to  be 
borrowed  from  the  Treuga  or  Pax  Dei,  and  the  Pax  Regis,  which  I  have 
explained.  But  after  the  Conquest  the  mention  of  private  wars  among  the 
uobility  occurs  more  rarely  in  the  English  history  than  in  that  of  any 
other  European  nation,  and  no  laws  concerning  them  are  to  be  found 
in  the  body  of  their  statutes.  Such  a  change  in  their  own  manners,  and 
such  a  variation  from  those  of  their  neighbours,  is  remarkable.  Is  it  to 
be  ascribed  to  the  extraordinary  power  that  William  the  Norman  acquired 
by  right  of  conquest  and  transmitted  to  his  successors,  which  rendered 
the  execution  of  justice  more  vigorous  and  decisive,  and  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  king's  court  more  extensive,  than  under  the  monarchs  on  the 
Continent  ?  Or  was  it  owing  to  the  settlement  of  the  Normans  in 
England,  who,  having  never  adopted  the  practice  of  private  war  in  their 
own  country,  abolished  it  in  the  kingdom  which  they  conquered  1  It 
is  asserted  in  an  ordinance  of  John,  king  of  France,  that  in  all  times 
jpast  persons  of  eveiy  rank  in  Normandy  have  been  prohibited  to  "wage 
private  war,  and  the  practice  has  been  deemed  unlawful.  (Ordon.,  torn.  ii. 
p.  407.)  If  this  fact  were  certain,  it  would  go  far  towards  explaining  the 
peculiarity  which  I  havo,  mentioned.  But,  as  there  are  some  English  acta 


232  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.        [NOTE  xxi. 

of  parliament  which,  according  to  the  remark  of  the  learned  author  of  the 
Observations  on  the  Statutes,  chiefly  the  more  Ancient,  recite  falsehoods,  it  may 
be  added  that  this  is  not  peculiar  to  the  laws  of  that  country.  Notwith- 
standing the  positive  assertion  contained  in  this  public  law  of  France, 
there  is  good  reason  for  considering  it  as  a  statute  which  recites  a  falsehood. 
This,  however,  is  not  the  place  for  discussing  that  point.  It  is  an  inquiry 
not  unworthy  the  curiosity  of  an  English  antiquary. 

In  Castile  the  pernicious  practice  of  private  war  prevailed,  and  was 
authorized  by  the  customs  and  law  of  the  kingdom.  (Leges  Tauri,  tit.  76, 
cum  commentario  Anton.  Gomezii,  p.  551.)  As  the  Castilian  nobles  were 
no  less  turbulent  than  powerful,  their  quarrels  and  hostilities  involved 
their  country  in  many  calamities.  Innumerable  proofs  of  this  occur  in 
Mariana.  In  Aragon  the  right  of  private  revenge  was  likewise  authorized 
by  law,  exercised  in  its  full  extent,  and  accompanied  with  the  same  unhappy 
consequences.  (Hieron.  Blunca,  Comment,  de  Rebus  Arag.,  ap.  Schotti 
Hispan.  illustrat,  vol.  iii.  p.  733  ;  Lex  Jacobi  I.,  A.r>.  1247  ;  Fueros  y 
Observancias  del  Reynode  Aragon,  lib.  ix.  p.  182.)  Several  confederacies 
between  the  kings  of  Aragon  and  their  nobles  for  the  restoring  of  peace, 
founded  on  the  truce  of  God,  are  still  extant.  (Petr.  de  Marca,  Marca, 
sive  Limes  Hispanic.,  App.,  1303,  1388,  1428.)  As  early  as  the  year 
1165  we  find  a  combination  of  the  king  and  court  of  Aragon  in  order  to 
abolish  the  right  of  private  war  and  to  punish  those  who  presumed  to  claim 
that  privilege.  (Anales  de  Aragon,  por  Zurita,  vol.  i.  p.  73.)  But  the 
evil  was  so  inveterate  that,  as  late  as  A.D.  1519,  Charles  V.  was  obliged  to 
publish  a  law  enforcing  all  former  regulations  tending  to  suppress  this 
practice.  Fueros  y  Observancias,  lib.  ix.  183,  b. 

The  Lombards,  and  other  Northern  nations  who  settled  in  Italy,  intro 
duced  the  same  maxims  concerning  the  right  of  revenge  into  that  country. 
and  these  were  followed  by  the  same  effects.  As  the  progress  of  the  evil 
was  perfectly  similar  to  what  happened  in  France,  the  expedients  employed 
to  check  its  career,  or  to  extirpate  it  finally,  resembled  those  which  I  have 
enumerated.  Murat.,  Anliq.  ItaL,  vol.  ii.  p.  306,  etc. 

In  Germany  the  disorders  and  calamities  occasioned  by  the  right  of 
private  war  were  greater  and  more  intolerable  than  in  any  other  country  of 
Europe.  The  imperial  authority  was  so  much  shaken  and  enfeebled  by 
the  violence  of  the  civil  wars  excited  by  the  contests  between  the  popes  and 
the  emperors  of  the  Franconian  and  Suabian  lines  that  not  only  the  nobility 
but  the  cities  acquired  almost  independent  power  and  scorned  all  subordi- 
nation and  obedience  to  the  laws.  The  frequency  of  these  faidce,  or  private 
wars,  is  often  mentioned  in  the  German  annals,  and  the  fatal  effects  of 
them  are  most  pathetically  described,  Datt,  de  Pace  Imper.  Pub.,  lib.  i. 
cap.  5,  no,  30,  et  passim.  The  Germans  early  adopted  the  Treuga  Dei, 
which  was  first  established  in  France.  This,  however,  proved  but  a  tem- 
porary and  ineffectual  remedy.  The  disorders  multiplied  so  fast  and  grew 
to  be  so  enormous  that  they  threatened  the  dissolution  of  society,  and 
compelled  the  Germans  to  have  recourse  to  the  only  remedy  of  the  evil, 
namely,  an  absolute  prohibition  of  private  wars.  The  emperor  William 
published  his  edict  to  this  purpose,  A.D.  1255,  an  hundred  and  sixty 
years  previous  to  the  ordinance  of  Charles  VI.  in  France.  (Datt.,  lib.  i 
cap.  4,  no.  20.)  But  neither  he  nor  his  successors  had  authority  to  secura 


xxii.j       PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  2B3 

the  observance  of  it.  This  gave  rise  to  a  practice  in  Germany  which  con- 
veys to  us  a  striking  idea  both  of  the  intolerable  calamities  occasioned  by 
private  wars,  and  of  the  feebleness  of  government  during  the  twelfth  and 
thirteenth  centuries.  The  cities  and  nobles  entered  into  alliances  and 
associations,  by  which  they  bound  themselves  to  maintain  the  public  peace 
and  to  make  war  on  such  as  should  violate  it.  This  was  the  origin  of 
the  league  of  the  Rhine,  of  Suabia,  and  of  many  smaller  confederacies 
distinguished  by  various  names.  The  rise,  progress,  and  beneficial  effects 
of  these  associations  are  traced  by  Datt  with  great  accuracy.  Whatever 
degree  of  public  peace  or  of  regular  administration  was  preserved  in  the 
empire  from  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century  to  the  close  of  the 
fifteenth,  Germany  owes  to  these  leagues.  During  that  period,  political 
order,  respect  for  the  laws,  together  with  the  equal  administration  of 
justice,  made  considerable  progress  in  Germany.  But  the  final  and  per- 
petual abolition  of  the  right  of  private  war  was  not  accomplished  until 
A.D.  1495.  The  imperial  authority  was  by  that  time  more  firmly  esta- 
blished, the  ideas  of  men  with  respect  to  government  and  subordination 
were  become  more  just.  That  barbarous  and  pernicious  privilege  of 
waging  private  war,  which  the  nobles  had  so  long  possessed,  was  declared 
to  be  incompatible  with  the  happiness  and  existence  of  society.  In  order 
to  terminate  any  differences  which  might  arise  among  the  various  mem- 
bers of  the  Germanic  body,  the  Imperial  Chamber  was  instituted  with 
supreme  jurisdiction,  to  judge  without  appeal  in  every  question  brought 
before  it.  That  court  has  subsisted  since  that  period,  forming  a  very 
respectable  tribunal  of  essential  importance  in  the  German  constitution. 
Datt.,  lib.  iii.,  iv.,  v.  ;  Pfeffel,  AbregcS  de  1'Histoire  du  Droit,  etc.,  p.  556. 

NOTE  XXII. — Sect  I.  p.  55. 

It  would  be  tedious  and  of  little  use  to  enumerate  the  various  modes  of 
appealing  to  the  justice  of  God  which  superstition  introduced  during  the 
ages  of  ignorance.  I  shall  mention  only  one,  because  we  have  an  account 
of  it  in  a  placitum,  or  trial,  in  the  presence  of  Charlemagne,  from  which 
we  may  learn  the  imperfect  manner  in  which  justice  was  administered 
even  during  his  reign.  In  the  year  775  a  contest  arose  between  the  bishop 
of  Paris  and  the  abbot  of  St.  Denys  concerning  the  property  of  a  small 
abbey.  Each  of  them  exhibited  deeds  and  records  in  order  to  prove  the 
right  to  be  in  them.  Instead  of  trying  the  authenticity  or  considering  the; 
import  of  these,  the  point  was  referred  to  the  judicium  crucis.  Each  pror- 
duced  a  person  who,  during  the  celebration  of  mass,  stood  before  the  cross 
with  his  arms  expanded ;  and  he  whose  representative  first  became  weary 
and  altered  his  posture  lost  the  cause.  The  person  employed  by  the 
bishop  on  this  occasion  had  less  strength  or  less  spirit  than  his  adversary,, 
and  the  question  was  decided  in  favour  of  the  abbot.  (Mabillon,  de  Re 
Diplomat.,  lib.  vi.  p.  498.)  If  a  prince  so  enlightened  as  Charlemagne 
countenanced  such  an  absurd  mode  of  decision,  it  is  no  wonder  that  other 
monarchs  should  tolerate  it  so  long.  M.  de  Montesquieu  has  treated  of 
the  trial  by  judicial  combat  at  considerable  length.  The  two  talents  which 
distinguish  that  illustrious  author,  industry  in  tracing  all  the  circumstances 
of  ancient  and  obscure  institutions,  and  sagacity  in  penetrating  into  the 


234  PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.          [NOTE  xxn. 

causes  and  principles  which  contributed  to  establish  them,  are  equally 
conspicuous  in  his  observations  on  this  subject.  To  these  I  refer  the 
reader,  as  they  contain  most  of  the  principles  by  which  I  have  endeavoured 
to  explain  this  practice.  (De  1'Esprit  des  Loix,  liv.  xxviii.)  It  seems 
to  be  probable,  from  the  remarks  of  M.  de  Montesquieu,  as  well  as  from 
the  facts  produced  by  Muratori  (torn.  iii.  Dissert.  XXXVIII.),  that  appeals 
to  the  justice  of  God  by  the  experiments  with  fire  and  water,  etc.,  were 
frequent  among  the  people  who  settled  in  the  different  provinces  of  the 
Roman  empire,  before  they  had  recourse  to  the  judicial  combat ;  and  yet 
the  judicial  combat  seems  to  have  been  the  most  ancient  mode  of 
cerminating  any  controversy  among  the  barbarous  nations  in  their  original 
settlements.  This  is  evident  from  Velleius  Paterculus  (lib.  ii.  c.  118), 
who  informs  us  that  all  questions  which  were  decided  among  the  Romans 
by  legal  trial  were  terminated  among  the  Germans  by  arms.  The  same 
thing  appears  in  the  ancient  laws  and  customs  of  the  Swedes,  quoted 
by  Jo.  O.  Stiernhook  de  Jure  Sueonum  et  Gothorum  vetusto,  4to,  Holmise, 
1682,  lib.  i.  c.  7.  It  is  probable  that  when  the  various  tribes  which 
invaded  the  empire  were  converted  to  Christianity  their  ancient  custom  of 
allowing  judicial  combats  appeared  so  glaringly  repugnant  to  the  precepts 
of  religion  that  for  some  time  it  was  abolished,  and  by  degrees  several 
circumstances  which  I  have  mentioned  led  them  to  resume  it. 

It  seems  likewise  to  be  probable,  from  a  law  quoted  by  Stiernhook  in 
the  treatise  which  I  have  mentioned,  that  the  judicial  combat  was  originally 
permitted  in  order  to  determine  points  respecting  the  personal  character  or 
reputation  of  individuals,  and  was  afterwards  extended  not  only  to  criminal 
cases,  but  to  questions  concerning  property.  The  words  of  the  law  are, 
"  If  any  man  shall  say  to  another  these  reproachful  words,  '  You  are  not  a 
man  equal  to  other  men,'  or,  '  You  have  not  the  heart  of  a  man,'  and  the 
other  shall  reply,  '  I  am  a  man  as  good  as  you,'  let  them  meet  on  the 
highway.  If  he  who  first  gave  off  once  appear,  and  the  person  offended  absent 
himself,  let  the  latter  be  deemed  a  worse  man  even  than  he  was  called  ; 
let  him  not  be  admitted  to  give  evidence  in  judgment  either  for  man  or 
woman,  and  let  him  not  have  the  privilege  of  making  a  testament.  If  he 
who  gave  the  offence  be  absent,  and  only  the  person  offended  appear,  let 
him  call  upon  the  other  thrice  with  a  loud  voice,  and  make  a  mark 
upon  the  earth,  and  then  let  him  who  absented  himself  be  deemed  in- 
famous, because  he  uttered  words  which  he  durst  not  support.  If  both 
shall  appear  properly  armed,  and  the  person  offended  shall  fall  in  the 
combat,  let  a  half  compensation  be  paid  for  his  death.  But  if  the  person 
who  gave  the  offence  shall  fall,  let  it  be  imputed  to  his  own  rashness. 
The  petulance  of  his  tongue  hath  been  fatal  to  him.  Let  him  lie  in  the 
field  without  any  compensation  being  demanded  for  his  death."  (Lex 
Uplandica,  ap.  Stiern.,  p.  76.)  Martial  people  were  extremely  delicate 
with  respect  to  every  thing  that  affected  their  reputation  as  soldiers.  By 
the  law  of  the  Salians,  if  any  man  called  another  a  hare,  or  accused 
him  of  having  left  his  shield  in  the  field  of  battle,  he  was  ordained  to 
pay  a  large  fine.  (Leg.  Sal.,  tit.  xxxii.  §§  4,  6.)  By  the  law  of  the 
Lombards,  if  any  one  called  another  arga,  i.e.,  a  good-for-nothing  fellow, 
he  might  immediately  challenge  him  to  combat.  (Leg.  Longob.,  lib.  L 
tit.  v.  §  I.)  By  the  law  of  the  Salians,  if  one  called  another  cenitus,  a 


NOTE  xxii.]         PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  235 

term  of  reproach  equivalent  to  arga,  he  was  bound  to  pay  a  very  high 
fine.  (Tit.  xxxii.  §  1.)  Paulus  Diaconus  relates  the  violent  impression 
which  this  reproachful  expression  made  upon  one  of  his  countrymen,  and 
the  fatal  effects  with  which  it  was  attended.  (De  Qestis  Longobard, 
liv.  vi.  c.  34.)  Thus  the  ideas  concerning  the  point  of  honour,  which 
we  are  apt  to  consider  as  a  modern  refinement,  as  well  as  the  practice 
of  duelling,  to  which  it  gave  rise,  are  derived  from  the  notions  of  our 
ancestors  while  in  a  state  of  society  very  little  improved. 

As  M.  de  Montesquieu's  view  of  this  subject  did  not  lead  him  to  con- 
sider every  circumstance  relative  to  judicial  combats,  I  shall  mention  some 
particular  facts  necessary  for  the  illustration  of  what  I  have  said  with 
respect  to  them.  A  remarkable  instance  occurs  of  the  decision  of  an 
abstract  point  of  law  by  combat.  A  question  arose  in  the  tenth  century 
concerning  the  right  of  representation,  which  was  not  then  fixed,  though 
now  universally  established  in  every  part  of  Europe.  "  It  was  a  matter 
of  doubt  and  dispute,"  saith  the  historian,  "  whether  the  sons  of  a  son 
ought  to  be  reckoned  among  the  children  of  the  family,  and  succeed  equally 
with  their  uncles,  if  their  father  happen  to  die  while  their  grandfather  was 
alive.  An  assembly  was  called  to  deliberate  on  this  point,  and  it  was 
the  general  opinion  that  it  ought  to  be  remitted  to  the  examination  and 
decision  of  judges.  But  the  emperor,  following  a  better  course,  and  desirous 
of  dealing  honourably  with  his  people  and  nobles,  appointed  the  matter  to 
be  decided  by  battle  between  two  champions.  He  who  appeared  in  behalf 
of  the  right  of  children  to  represent  their  deceased  father  was  victori- 
ous ;  and  it  was  established,  by  a  perpetual  decree,  that  they  should  here- 
after share  in  the  inheritance  together  with  their  uncles."  (Wittikindus 
Corbiensis,  lib.  AnnaL,  ap.  M.  de  Lauriere,  Prdf.  Ordon.,  voL  i.  p.  xxxiii.) 
If  we  can  suppose  the  caprice  of  folly  to  lead  men  to  any  action  more  ex- 
travagant than  this  of  settling  a  point  in  law  by  combat,  it  must  be  that 
of  referring  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  a  religious  opinion  to  be  decided  in 
the  same  manner.  To  the  disgrace  of  human  reason,  it  has  been  capable 
even  of  this  extravagance.  A  question  was  agitated  in  Spain  in  the  eleventh 
century,  whether  the  Musarabic  liturgy  and  ritual  which  had  been  used 
in  the  churches  of  Spain,  or  that  approved  of  by  the  see  of  Rome,  which 
differed  in  many  particulars  from  the  other,  contained  the  form  of  worship 
most  acceptable  to  the  Deity.  The  Spaniards  contended  zealously  for  the 
ritual  of  their  ancestors.  The  popes  urged  them  to  receive  that  to  which 
they  had  given  their  infallible  sanction.  A  violent  contest  arose.  The 
nobles  proposed  to  decide  the  controversy  by  the  sword.  The  king  ap- 
proved of  this  method  of  decision.  Two  knights  in  complete  armour 
entered  the  lists.  John  Ruys  de  Matanca,  the  champion  of  the  Musarabic 
liturgy,  was  victorious.  But  the  queen  and  archbishop  of  Toledo,  who 
favoured  the  other  form,  insisted  on  having  the  matter  submitted  to 
another  trial,  and  had  interest  enough  to  prevail  in  a  request,  inconsistent 
with  the  laws  of  combat,  which  being  considered  as  an  appeal  to  God,  the 
decision  ought  to  have  been  acquiesced  in  as  final.  A  great  fire  was 
kindled.  A  copy  of  each  liturgy  was  cast  into  the  flames.  It  was  agreed 
that  the  book  which  stood  this  proof  and  remained  untouched  should  be 
received  in  all  the  churches  of  Spain.  The  Musarabic  liturgy  triumphed 
likewise  in  this  trial,  and,  if  we  may  believe  Roderigo  de  Toledo,  remained 


236  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTEATIONS.          [NOTE  xxn. 

unhurt  by  the  fire  when  the  other  was  reduced  to  ashes.  The  queen  and 
archbishop  had  power  or  art  sufficient  to  elude  this  decision  also,  and  the 
use  of  the  Musarabic  form  of  devotion  was  permitted  only  in  certain 
churches, — a  determination  no  less  extraordinary  than  the  whole  trans* 
action.  (Eoder.  de  Toledo,  quoted  by  P.  Orleans,  Hist,  des  Revolutions 
d'Espagne,  torn.  i.  p.  417  ;  Mariana,  lib.  i.  c.  18,  vol.  i  p.  378.)  A  re- 
markable proof  of  the  general  use  of  trial  by  combat,  and  of  the  predilec- 
tion for  that  mode  of  decision,  occurs  in  the  laws  of  the  Lombards.  It  was 
a  custom  in  the  Middle  Ages  that  any  person  might  signify  publicly  the 
law  to  which  he  chose  to  be  subjected  ;  and  by  the  prescriptions  of  that 
law  he  was  obliged  to  regulate  his  transactions,  without  being  bound  to 
comply  with  any  practice  authorized  by  other  codes  of  law.  Persons  who 
had  subjected  themselves  to  the  Roman  law,  and  adhered  to  the  ancient 
jurisprudence,  as  far  as  any  knowledge  of  it  was  retained  in  those  ages  of 
ignorance,  were  exempted  from  paying  any  regard  to  the  forms  of  pro- 
ceedings established  by  the  laws  of  the  Burgundians,  Lombards,  and  other 
barbarous  people.  But  the  emperor  Otho,  in  direct  contradiction  to  this 
received  maxim,  ordained  "  That  all  persons,  under  whatever  law  they 
lived,  even  although  it  were  the  Roman  law,  should  be  bound  to  conform 
to  the  edicts  concerning  the  trial  by  combat."  (Leg.  Longob.,  lib.  ii. 
tit.  55,  §  38.)  While  the  trial  by  judicial  combat  subsisted,  proof  by 
charters,  contracts,  or  other  deeds  became  ineffectual ;  and  even  this  species 
of  written  evidence,  calculated  to  render  the  proceedings  of  courts  certain 
and  decisive,  was  eluded.  When  a  charter  or  other  instrument  was  pro- 
duced by  one  of  the  parties,  his  opponent  might  challenge  it,  affirm  that 
it  was  false  and  forged,  and  offer  to  prove  this  by  combat.  (Leg.  Longob., 
ibid.,  §  34.)  It  is  true  that,  among  the  reasons  enumerated  by  Beaumanoir 
on  account  of  which  judges  might  refuse  to  permit  a  trial  by  combat, 
one  is,  "  If  the  point  in  contest  can  be  clearly  proved  or  ascertained  by 
other  evidence."  (Coust.  de  Beauv.,  ch.  63,  p.  323.)  But  that  regula- 
tion removed  the  evil  only  a  single  step.  For  the  party  who  suspected 
that  a  witness  was  about  to  depose  in  a  manner  unfavourable  to  his  cause 
might  accuse  him  of  being  suborned,  give  him  the  lie,  and  challenge 
him  to  combat  ;  if  the  witness  was  vanquished  in  battle,  no  other  evidence 
could  be  admitted,  and  the  party  by  whom  he  was  summoned  to  appear 
lost  his  cause.  (Leg.  Baivar.,  tit.  16,  §  2  ;  Leg.  Burgund.  tit.  45  ;  Beau- 
man.,  ch.  61,  p.  315.)  The  reason  given  for  obliging  a  witness  to  accept 
of  a  defiance,  and  to  defend  himself  by  combat,  is  remarkable,  and  con- 
tains the  same  idea  which  is  still  the  foundation  of  what  is  called  the 
point  of  honour  :  "  for  it  is  just  that  if  any  one  affirms  that  he  perfectly 
knows  the  truth  of  anything,  and  offers  to  give  oath  upon  it,  he  should 
not  hesitate  to  maintain  the  veracity  of  his  affirmation  in  combat."  Leg. 
Burgund.,  tit.  45. 

That  the  trial  by  judicial  combat  was  established  in  every  country  of 
Europe  is  a  fact  well  known,  and  requires  no  proof.  That  this  mode  of 
decision  was  frequent  appears  not  only  from  the  codes  of  ancient  laws  which 
established  it,  but  from  the  earliest  writers  concerning  the  practice  of  law 
in  the  different  nations  of  Europe.  They  treat  of  this  custom  at  great 
length  ;  they  enumerate  the  regulations  concerning  it  with  minute  accuracy 
and  explain  them  with  much  solicitude.  It  made  a  capital  and  extensive 


NOTE  xxii.]         PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  237 

article  in  jurisprudence.  There  is  not  any  one  subject  in  their  system  ol 
law  which  Beaunianoir,  Defontaines,  or  the  compilers  of  the  Assizes  de 
Jerusalem  seem  to  have  considered  as  of  greater  importance ;  and  none 
upon  which  they  have  bestowed  so  much  attention.  The  same  observation 
will  hold  with  respect  to  the  early  authors  of  other  nations.  It  appears 
from  Madox  that  trials  of  this  kind  were  so  frequent  in  England  that  fines 
paid  on  these  occasions  made  no  inconsiderable  branch  of  the  king's  revenue. 
(Hist,  of  the  Excheq.,  vol.  i.  p.  349.)  A  very  curious  account  of  a  judi- 
cial combat  between  Messire  Robert  de  Beaunianoir  and  Messire  Pierre 
Tournemine,  in  presence  of  the  duke  of  Bretngne,  A.D.  1385,  is  published 
by  Morice  (Me'in.  pour  servir  de  Preuves  a  1'Hist.  de  Bretugne,  torn.  ii. 
p.  498.)  All  the  formalities  observed  in  such  extraordinary  proceedings 
are  there  described  more  minutely  than  in  any  ancient  monument  which  I 
have  had  an  opportunity  of  considering.  Tournemine  was  accused  by 
Beaumanoir  of  having  murdered  his  brother.  The  former  was  vanquished, 
but  was  saved  from  being  hanged  upon  the  spot  by  the  generous  interces- 
sion of  his  antagonist.  A  good  account  of  the  origin  of  the  laws  concerning 
judicial  combat  is  published  in  the  History  of  Pavia,  by  Bernardo  Sacci, 
lib.  ix.  c.  8,  in  Graev.  Thes.  Antiquit.  Ital.,  vol.  iii.  p.  743. 

This  mode  of  trial  was  so  acceptable  that  ecclesiastics,  notwithstanding 
the  prohibitions  of  the  Church,  were  constrained  not  only  to  connive  at  the 
practice,  but  to  authorize  it.  A  remarkable  instance  of  this  is  produced  'by 
Pasquier,  Recherches,  lib.  iv.  ch.  i.  p.  350.  The  abbot  Wittikindus,  whose 
words  I  have  produced*  in  this  note,  considered  the  determination  of  a  point 
in  law  by  combat  as  the  best  and  most  honourable  mode  of  decision.  In  the 
year  978  a  judicial  combat  was  fought  in  the  presence  of  the  emperor. 
The  archbishop  Aldebert  advised  him  to  terminate  a  contest  which  had 
arisen  between  two  noblemen  of  his  court  by  this  mode  of  decision.  The 
vanquished  combatant,  though  a  person  of  high  rank,  was  beheaded  on  the 
spot.  (Chronic.  Ditmari,  Episc.  Mersb.,  apud  Bouquet,  Recueil  des  Hist., 
torn.  x.  p.  121.)  Questions  concerning  the  property  of  churches  and 
monasteries  were  decided  by  combat.  In  the  year  961  a  controversy  con- 
cerning the  church  of  St.  MeMard,  whether  it  belonged  to  the  abbey  of 
Beaulieu  or  not,  was  terminated  by  judicial  combat.  (Bouquet,  Recueil 
des  Hist.,  torn.  ix.  p.  729;  ibid.,  p.  612,  etc.)  The  emperor  Henry  I. 
declares  that  this  law,  authorizing  the  practice  of  judicial  combats,  was 
enacted  with  consent  and  applause  of  many  faithful  bishops.  (Ibid., 
p.  231.)  So  remarkably  did  the  martial  ideas  of  those  ages  prevail  over 
the  genius  and  maxims  of  the  canon  law,  which  in  other  instances  was  in 
the  highest  credit  and  authority  with  ecclesiastics.  A  judicial  combat  was 
appointed  in  Spain,  by  Charles  V.,  A.D.  1522.  The  combatants  fought 
in  the  emperor's  presence,  and  the  battle  was  conducted  with  all  the  rites 
prescribed  by  the  ancient  laws  of  chivalry.  The  whole  transaction  is 
described  at  great  length  by  Pontus  Heuterus,  Rer.  Austriac.,  lib.  viii.  c. 
17,  p.  205. 

The  last  instance  which  occurs  in  the  history  of  France  of  a  judicial 
combat  authorized  by  the  magistrate  was  the  famous  one  between  M.  Jarnac 
and  M.  de  la  Chaistaignerie,  A.D.  1547.  A  trial  by  combat  was  appointed 
in  England,  A.D.  1571,  under  the  inspection  of  the  judges  in  the  Court  of 
Common  Pleas ;  and  though  it  was  not  carried  to  the  same  extremity 


238  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.        [NOTE  xxm. 

with  the  former,  Queen  Elizabeth  having  interposed  her  authority  and 
enjoined  the  parties  to  compound  the  matter,  yet,  in  order  to  preserve  their 
honour,  the  lists  were  marked  out,  and  all  the  forms  previous  to  the  combat 
were  observed  with  much  ceremony.  (Spehn.,  Gloss.,  voc.  Campus, 
p.  103.)  In  the  year  1631  a  judicial  combat  was  appointed  between 
Donald  Lord  Rea  and  David  Ramsay,  Esq.,  by  the  authority  of  the  lord 
high  constable  and  earl  marshal  of  England ;  but  that  quarrel  likewise 
terminated  without  bloodshed,  being  accommodated  by  Charles  I.  Another 
instance  occurs  seven  years  later.  Rushworth,  in  Observations  on  the  Sta- 
tutes, etc.,  p.  266. 

NOTE  XXIII.— Sect.  I.  p.  60. 

The  text  contains  the  great  outlines  which  mark  the  course  of  private 
and  public  jurisdiction  in  the  several  nations  of  Europe.  I  shall  here 
follow  more  minutely  the  various  steps  of  this  progress,  as  the  mat- 
ter is  curious  and  important  enough  to  merit  this  attention.  The 
payment  of  a  fine  by  way  of  satisfaction  to  the  person  or  family  injured 
was  the  first  device  of  a  rude  people  in  order  to  check  the  career  of  private 
resentment,  and  to  extinguish  those  faidce,  or  deadly  feuds,  which  were 
prosecuted  among  them  with  the  utmost  violence.  This  custom  may  be 
traced  back  to  the  ancient  Germans  (Tacit.,  de  Morib.  Germ.,  c.  21),  and 
prevailed  among  other  uncivilised  nations.  Many  examples  of  this  are 
collected  by  the  ingenious  and  learned  author  of  Historical  Law  Tracts 
(vol.  i.  p.  41).  These  fines  were  ascertained  and  levied  in  three  different 
manners.  At  first  they  were  settled  by  voluntary  agreement  between  the 
parties  at  variance.  When  their  rage  began  to  subside,  and  they  felt  the 
bad  effects  of  their  continuing  in  enmity,  they  came  to  terms  of  concord, 
and  the  satisfaction  made  was  called  a  composition,  implying  that  it  was  fixed 
by  mutual  consent.  (De  1'Esprit  des  Loix,  liv.  xxx.  c.  19.)  It  is  appa- 
rent from  some  of  the  more  ancient  codes  of  laws  that  at  the  time  when 
these  were  compiled  matters  still  remained  in  that  simple  state.  In  certain 
cases  the  person  who  had  committed  an  offence  was  left  exposed  to  the 
resentment  of  those  whom  he  had  injured,  until  he  should  recover  their 
favour.,  "  quoquo  modo  potuerit."  (Leg.  Frision.,  tit.  11,  §  1.)  The  next 
mode  of  levying  these  fines  was  by  the  sentence  of  arbiters.  An  arbiter  is 
called  in  the  Regiam  Majestatem  amicabilis  compositor  (lib.  xi.  c.  4,  §  10.) 
He  could  estimate  the  degree  of  offence  with  more  impartiality  than  the 
parties  interested,  and  determine  with  greater  equity  what  satisfaction 
ought  to  be  demanded.  It  is  difficult  to  bring  an  authentic  proof  of  a 
custom  previous  to  the  records  preserved  in  any  nation  of  Europe.  But  one 
of  the  Formulae  Andegavenses  compiled  in  the  sixth  century  seems  to 
allude  to  a  transaction  carried  on,  not  by  the  authority  of  a  judge,  but  by 
the  mediation  of  arbiters  chosen  by  mutual  consent.  (Bouquet,  Recueil 
des  Histor.,  torn.  iv.  p.  566.)  But,  as  an  arbiter  wanted  authority  to  enforce 
his  decisions,  judges  were  appointed  with  compulsive  power  to  oblige  both 
parties  to  acquiesce  in  their  decisions.  Previous  to  this  last  step,  the  expe- 
dient of  paying  compositions  was  an  imperfect  remedy  against  the  perni- 
cious effects  of  private  resentment.  As  soon  as  this  important  change  was 
introduced,  the  magistrate,  putting  himself  in  place  of  the  person  injured, 


NOTE  xxni.]        PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  239 

ascertained  the  composition  with  which  he  ought  to  rest  satisfied.  Every 
possible  injury  that  could  occur  in  the  intercourse  of  civil  society  was  con- 
sidered, and  estimated,  and  the  compositions  due  to  the  persons  aggrieved 
were  fixed  with  such  minute  attention  as  discovers,  in  most  cases,  amazing 
discernment  and  delicacy,  in  some  instances  unaccountable  caprice.  Besides 
the  composition  payable  to  the  private  party,  a  certain  sum,  called  a  fredum, 
was  paid  to  the  king  or  state,  as  Tacitus  expresses  it,  or  to  the  fiscun.  in  the 
language  of  the  barbarous  laws.  Some  authors,  blending  the  refined  ideas 
of  modem  policy  with  their  reasonings  concerning  ancient  transactions,  have 
imagined  that  the  fredum  was  a  compensation  due  to  the  community  on 
account  of  the  violation  of  the  public  peace.  But  it  is  manifestly  nothing 
more  than  the  price  paid  to  the  magistrates  for  the  protection  which  he 
afforded  against  the  violence  of  resentment.  The  enacting  of  this  was  a 
considerable  step  towards  improvement  in  criminal  jurisprudence.  In 
some  of  the  more  ancient  codes  of  laws  the  freda  are  altogether  omitted,  or 
so  seldom  mentioned  that  it  is  evident  they  were  but  little  known.  In 
the  latter  codes  the  fredum  is  as  precisely  specified  as  the  composition.  In 
common  cases  it  was  equal  to  the  third  part  of  the  composition.  (Capitul., 
vol.  i.  p.  52.)  In  some  extraordinary  cases,  where  it  was  more  difficult  to 
protect  the  person  who  had  committed  violence,  the  fredum  was  augmented. 
(Capitul.,  vol.  i.  p.  515.)  These  freda  made  a  considerable  branch  in  the 
revenues  of  the  barons  ;  and  in  whatever  district  territorial  jurisdiction  was 
granted,  the  royal  judges  were  prohibited  from  levying  any  freda.  In 
explaining  the  nature  of  the  fredum,  I  have  followed  in  a  great  measure  the 
opinion  of  M.  de  Montesquieu,  though  I  know  that  several  learned  anti- 
quaries have  taken  the  word  in  a  different  sense.  (De  1'Esprit  des  Loix, 
liv.  xxx.  c.  20,  etc.)  The  great  object  of  judges  was  to  compel  the  one 
party  to  give,  and  the  other  to  accept,  the  satisfaction  prescribed.  They 
multiplied  regulations  to  this  purpose,  and  enforced  them  by  grievous 
penalties.  (Leg.  Longob.,  lib.  i.  tit.  9,  §34;  ibid.,  tit.  37,  §§  1,  2; 
Capitul.,  voL  i.  p.  371,  §  22.)  The  person  who  received  a  composition 
was  obliged  to  cease  from  all  further  hostility,  and  to  confirm  his  recon- 
ciliation with  the  adverse  party  by  an  oath.  (Leg.  Longob.,  lib.  i  tit.  9, 
§  8.)  As  an  additional  and  more  permanent  evidence  of  reconciliation,  he 
was  required  to  grant  a  bond  of  security  to  the  person  from  whom  he 
received  a  composition,  absolving  him  from  all  further  prosecution.  Mar- 
culfus,  and  the  other  collectors  of  ancient  writs,  have  preserved  several 
different  forms  of  such  bonds.  (Marc.,  lib.  xi.  §  18;  Append.,  §  23; 
Form.  Sirmondicae,  §  39.)  The  letters  of  Slanes,  known  in  the  law  of 
Scotland,  are  perfectly  similar  to  these  bonds  of  security.  By  the  letters  of 
Slanes,  the  heirs  and  relations  of  a  person  who  had  been  murdered 
bound  themselves,  in  consideration  of  an  assythment,  or  composition  paid 
to  them,  to  forgive,  "pass  over,  and  forever  forget,  and  in  oblivion  inter, 
all  rancour,  malice,  revenge,  prejudice,  grudge,  and  resentment  that  they 
have  or  may  conceive  against  the  aggressor  or  his  posterity,  for  the  crime 
which  he  had  committed,  and  discharge  him  of  all  action,  civil  or  criminal, 
against  him  or  his  estate,  for  now  and  ever."  (System  of  Stiles,  by  Dallas 
of  St.  Martin's,  p.  862.)  In  the  ancient  form  of  letters  of  Slanes,  the  pri- 
vate jarty  not  only  forgives  and  forgets,  but  pardons  and  grants  remission 
of  the  crime.  This  practice  Dallas,  reasoning  according  to  the  principle* 


240  PBOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.        [NOTE  xxm. 

of  his  own  age,  considers  as  an  encroachment  on  the  rights  of  sovereignty, 
as  none,  says  he,  could  pardon  a  criminal  but  the  king.  (Ibid.)  But  in 
early  and  rude  times  the  prosecution,  the  punishment,  and  the  pardon  of 
criminals  were  all  deeds  of  the  private  person  who  was  injured.  Madox 
has  published  two  writs,  one  in  the  reign  of  Edward  I.,  the  other  in  the 
reign  of  Edward  III.,  by  which  private  persons  grant  a  release  or  pardon 
of  all  trespasses,  felonies,  robberies,  and  murders  committed.  (FonuuL 
Anglican.,  no.  702,  705.)  In  the  last  of  these  instruments,  some  regard 
seems  to  be  paid  to  the  rights  of  the  sovereign,  for  the  pardon  is  granted 
en  quant  que  en  nous  est.  Even  after  the  authority  of  the  magistrate  was 
interposed  in  punishing  crimes,  the  punishment  of  criminals  is  long  con- 
sidered chiefly  as  a  gratification  to  the  resentment  of  the  persons  who  have 
been  injured.  In  Persia  a  murderer  is  still  delivered  to  the  relations  of  the 
person  whom  he  has  slain,  who  put  him  to  death  with  their  own  hands. 
If  they  refuse  to  accept  of  a  sum  of  money  as  a  compensation,  the  sovereign, 
absolute  as  he  is,  cannot  pardon  the  murderer.  (Voyages  de  Chardin,  iii. 
417,  edit.  1735,  4to  ;  Voyages  de  Tavernier,  liv.  v.  c.  5,  10.)  Among 
the  Arabians,  though  one  of  the  first  polished  people  in  the  East,  the  same 
custom  still  subsists.  (Description  de  1'Arabie,  par  M.  Niebuhr,  p.  28.)  By 
a  law  in  the  kingdom  of  Aragon  as  late  as  the  year  1564,  the  punishment 
of  one  condemned  to  death  cannot  be  mitigated  but  by  consent  of  the 
parties  who  have  been  injured.  Fueros  y  Observancias  del  Reyno  de 
Aragon,  p.  204,  6. 

If,  after  all  the  engagements  to  cease  from  enmity  which  I  have  men- 
tioned, any  person  renewed  hostilities,  and  was  guilty  of  any  violence,  either 
towards  the  person  from  whom  he  had  received  a  composition,  or  towards 
his  relations  and  heirs,  this  was  deemed  a  most  heinous  crime,  and 
punished  with  extraordinary  rigour.  It  was  an  act  of  direct  rebellion 
against  the  authority  of  the  magistrate,  and  was  repressed  by  the  interpo- 
sition of  all  his  power.  (Leg.  Longob.,  lib.  i.  tit.  9,  §  8,  p.  34  ;  Capit., 
vol.  L  p.  371,  §  22.)  Thus  the  avenging  of  injuries  was  taken  out  of 
private  hands,  a  legal  composition  was  established,  and  peace  and  amity 
were  restored  under  the  inspection  and  by  the  authority  of  a  judge.  It  is 
evident  that  at  the  time  when  the  barbarians  settled  in  the  provinces  of  the 
Roman  empire  they  had  fixed  judges  established  among  them  with  compul- 
sive authority.  Persons  vested  with  this  character  are  mentioned  by  the 
earliest  historians.  (Du  Cange,  voc.  Judices.)  The  right  of  territorial 
jurisdiction  was  not  altogether  an  usurpation  of  the  feudal  barons,  or  an 
invasion  of  the  prerogative  of  the  sovereign.  There  is  good  reason  to 
believe  that  the  powerful  leaders  who  seized  different  districts  of  the  coun- 
tries which  they  conquered,  and  kept  possession  of  them  as  allodial  property, 
assumed  from  the  beginning  the  right  of  jurisdiction,  and  exercised  it 
within  their  own  territories.  This  jurisdiction  was  supreme,  and  extended 
to  all  causes.  The  clearest  proofs  of  this  are  produced  by  M.  Bouquet,  Le 
Droit  publique  de  France  e'clairci,  etc.,  torn.  i.  p.  206,  etc.  The  privilege 
of  judging  his  own  vassals  appears  to  haye  been  originally  a  right  inherent 
in  every  baron  who  held  a  fief.  As  far  back  as  the  archives  of  nations  can 
conduct  us  with  any  certainty,  we  find  the  jurisdiction  and  fief  united. 
One  of  the  earliest  charters  to  a  layman  which  I  have  met  with  is  that  of 
Ludovicus  Pius,  A.D.  814  ;  and  it  contains  the  right  of  territorial  jurisdic- 


VOTE  XXIIL]         PHOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

tion  in  the  most  express  and  extensive  terms.  (Capital.,  voL  ii.  p.  1405.) 
There  are  many  charters  to  churches  and  monasteries  of  a  more  early  date, 
containing  grants  of  similar  jurisdiction,  and  prohibiting  any  royal  judge  to 
enter  the  territories  of  those  churches  or  monasteries  or  to  perform  any  act 
of  judicial  authority  there.  (Bouquet,  Recueil  des  Hist,  torn.  iv.  pp.  628, 
631,  633,  torn.  v.  pp.  703,  710,  752,  762.)  Muratori  has  published 
many  very  ancient  charters  containing  the  same  immunities.  (Antiq.  Ital., 
Dissert.  LXX.)  In  most  of  these  deeds  the  royal  judge  is  prohibited  from 
exacting  the  freda  due  to  the  possessor  of  territorial  jurisdiction,  which 
shows  that  they  constituted  a  valuable  part  of  the  revenue  of  each  superior 
lord  at  that  juncture.  The  expense  of  obtaining  a  sentence  in  a  court  of 
justice  during  the  Middle  Ages  was  so  considerable  that  this  circumstance 
alone  was  sufficient  to  render  men  unwilling  to  decide  any  contest  in 
judicial  form.  It  appears  from  a  charter  in  the  thirteenth  century  that  the 
baron  who  had  the  right  of  justice  received  the  fifth  part  of  the  value  of 
every  subject  the  property  of  which  was  tried  and  determined  in  his  court. 
If  after  the  commencement  of  a  lawsuit  the  parties  terminated  the  contest  in 
an  amicable  manner,  or  by  arbitration,  they  were  nevertheless  bound  to  pay 
the  fifth  part  of  the  subject  contested  to  the  court  before  which  the  suit  had 
been  brought.  (Hist,  de  Dauphins',  Geneve,  1722,  torn.  i.  p.  22.)  Similar 
to  this  is  a  regulation  in  the  charter  of  liberty  granted  to  the  town  of 
Friburg,  A.D.  1120.  If  two  of  the  citizens  shall  quarrel,  and  if  one  of 
them  shall  complain  to  the  superior  lord  or  to  his  judge,  and  after  com- 
mencing the  suit  shall  be  privately  reconciled  to  his  adversary,  the  judge, 
if  he  does  not  approve  of  this  reconciliation,  may  compel  him  to  go  on 
with  his  lawsuit,  and  all  who  were  present  at  the  reconciliation  shall  forfeit 
the  favour  of  the  superior  lord.  Historia  Zaringo-Badensis,' Auctor.  Jo.  Dan. 
Schoepflinus,  Carolsr.,  1765,  4to,  vol.  v.  p.  55. 

What  was  the  extent  of  that  jurisdiction  which  those  who  held  fiefs 
possessed  originally  we  cannot  now  determine  with  certainty.  It  is 
evident  that  during  the  disorders  which  prevailed  in  every  kingdom 
of  Europe  the  great  vassals  took  advantage  of  the  feebleness  of  their 
monarchs  and  enlarged  their  jurisdictions  to  the  utmost.  As  early  as 
the  tenth  century  the  more  powerful  barons  had  usurped  the  right  of 
deciding  all  causes,  whether  civil  or  criminal.  They  had  acqxured  the 
high  justice  as  well  as  the  low.  (Establ.  de  St.  Louis,  liv.  i.  c.  24,  25.) 
Their  sentences  were  final,  and  there  lay  no  appeal  from  them  to  any 
superior  court.  Several  striking  instances  of  this  are  collected  by  Brussel 
(Traite  des  Fiefs,  liv.  iii.  c.  11?  12,  13).  Not  satisfied  with  this,  the 
more  potent  barons  got  their  territories  created  into  regalities,  with 
almost  every  royal  prerogative  and  jurisdiction.  Instances  of  these 
were  frequent  in  France.  (Bruss.,  ibid.)  In  Scotland,  where  the  power 
of  the  feudal  nobles  became  exorbitant,  they  were  very  numerous 
(Historical  Law  Tracts,  voL  i.  tract  vi.)  Even  in  England,  though  the 
authority  of  the  Norman  kings  circumscribed  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
barons  within  more  narrow  limits  than  in  any  other  feudal  kingdom, 
several  counties  palatine  were  erected,  into  which  the  king's  judges  could 
not  enter,  and  no  writ  could  come  in  the  king's  name  until  it  received 
the  seal  of  the  county  palatine.  (Spelman,  Gloss.,  voc.  Comites  Palatini  ; 
Blackstone's  Commentaries  on  the  Laws  of  England,  vol.  iii.  p.  78.) 

VOL.    I.  * 


242  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.        [NOTE  xxm. 

These  lords  of  regalities  had  a  right  to  claim  or  rescue  their  vassals  from 
the  king's  judges,  if  they  assumed  any  jurisdiction  over  them.  (Brussel, 
ubi  supra.)  In  the  law  of  Scotland,  this  privilege  was  termed  the  right 
of  repledging ;  and  the  frequency  of  it  not  only  interrupted  the  course 
of  justice,  but  gave  rise  to  great  disorders  in  the  exercise  of  it.  (Hist. 
Law  Tracts,  ibid.)  The  jurisdiction  of  the  counties  palatine  seems  to 
have  been  productive  of  like  inconveniences  in  England. 

The  remedies  provided  by  princes  against  the  bad  effects  of  these 
usurpations  of  the  nobles,  or  inconsiderate  grants  of  the  crown,  were 
various  and  gradually  applied.  Under  Charlemagne  and  his  immediate 
descendants,  the  regal  prerogative  still  retained  great  vigour,  and  the 
duces,  comites,  and  missi  dominici,  the  former  of  whom  were  ordinary 
and  fixed  judges,  the  latter  extraordinary  and  itinerant  judges,  in  the 
different  provinces  of  their  extensive  dominions,  exercised  a  jurisdiction 
co-ordinate  with  the  barons  in  some  cases,  and  superior  to  them  in  others. 
(Du  Cange,  voc.  Dux,  Comites,  et  Missi;  Murat,  Antiq.,  Dissert.  VIII. 
et  IX.)  But  under  the  feeble  race  of  monarchs  who  succeeded  them,  the 
authority  of  the  royal  judges  declined,  and  the  barons  acquired  that 
unlimited  jurisdiction  which  has  been  described.  Louis  VI.  of  France 
attempted  to  revive  the  function  of  the  missi  dominici,  under  the  title 
of  juges  des  exempts,  but  the  barons  were  become  too  powerful  to  bear 
such  an  encroachment  on  their  jurisdiction,  and  he  was  obliged  to  desist 
from  employing  them.  (Hainault,  Abre'ge'  Chron.,  torn.  ii.  p.  730.) 
His  successor  (as  has  been  observed)  had  recourse  to  expedients  less 
alarming.  The  appeal  de  defaute  de  droit,  or  on  account  of  the  refusal  of 
justice,  was  the  first  which  was  attended  with  any  considerable  effect. 
According  to  the  maxims  of  feudal  law,  if  a  baron  had  not  as  many  vassals 
as  enabled  him  to  try  by  their  peers  the  parties  who  offered  to  plead  in 
his  court,  or  if  he  delayed  or  refused  to  proceed  in  the  trial,  the  cause 
might  be  carried,  by  appeal,  to  the  court  of  the  superior  lord  of  whom 
the  baron  held,  and  tried  there.  (De  1'Esprit  des  Loix,  liv.  xxviii.  c.  28  ; 
Du  Cange,  voc.  Defectus  Justitice.)  The  number  of  peers  or  assessors  in 
the  courts  of  barons  was  frequently  very  considerable.  It  appears  from 
a  criminal  trial  in  the  court  of  the  Viscount  de  Lautrec,  A.D.  1299,  that 
upwards  of  two  hundred  persons  were  present,  and  assisted  in  the  trial, 
and  voted  in  passing  judgment  (Hist,  de  Langued.,  par  D.  D.  de  Vic 
et  Vaisette,  torn,  iv.,  Preuves,  p.  114.)  But,  as  the  right  of  jurisdiction 
had  been  usurped  by  many  inconsiderable  barons,  they  were  often  unable 
to  hold  courts.  This  gave  frequent  occasion  to  such  appeals,  and  rendered 
the  practice  familiar.  By  degrees,  such  appeals  began  to  be  made  frou 
the  courts  of  the  more  powerful  barons  ;  and  it  is  evident  from  a  decision 
recorded  by  Brussel  that  the  royal  judges  were  willing  to  give  countenance 
to  any  pretext  for  them.  (Traite'  des  Fiefs,  torn.  i.  pp.  235,  261.)  This 
species  of  appeal  had  less  effect  in  abridging  the  jurisdiction  of  the  nobles 
than  the  appeal  on  account  of  the  injustice  of  the  sentence.  When  the 
feudal  monarchs  were  powerful  and  their  judges  possessed  extensive 
authority,  such  appeals  seem  to  have  been  frequent.  (Capitul.,  vol.  i 
pp.  175,  180.)  And  they  were  made  in  a  manner  suitable  to  the  rude- 
ness of  a  simple  age.  The  persons  aggrieved  resorted  to  the  palace  of 
their  sovereign  and  with  outcries  and  loud  noise  called  V  him  for  redress. 


NOTE  xxn i. j        PROOP&  AND  ILLUSTEATIONS.  243 

(Capital.,  lib.  iii.  c.  59  ;  Chronic.  Lawterbergiense,  ap.  Mencken.,  Script. 
German.,  vol.  ii  p.  284,  b.)  In  the  kingdom  of  Aragon,  the  appeals  to 
the  justiza,  or  supreme  judge,  were  taken  in  such  a  form  as  supposed 
the  appellant  to  be  in  immediate  danger  of  death  or  of  some  violent 
outrage  :  he  rushed  into  the  presence  of  the  judge,  crying  with  a  loud 
voice,  Aw,  Am,  Fuerm,  Fuerza,  thus  imploring  (as  it  were)  the  instant 
interposition  of  that  supreme  judge  in  order  to  save  him.  (Hier.  Blanca, 
Comment,  de  Rebus  Aragon.,  ap.  Script.  Hispanic.,  Pistorii,  vol.  iii. 
p.  753.)  The  abolition  of  the  trial  by  combat  facilitated  the  revival  of 
appeals  of  this  kind.  The  effects  of  the  subordination  which  appeals 
established,  in  introducing  attention,  equity,  and  consistency  of  decision 
into  courts  of  judicature,  were  soon  conspicuous  ;  and  almost  all  causes 
of  importance  were  carried  to  be  finally  determined  in  the  king's  courts. 
(Brussel,  torn.  i.  p.  252.)  Various  circumstances  which  contributed 
towards  the  introduction  and  frequency  of  such  appeals  are  enumerated 
De  1'Esprit  des  Loix,  liv.  xxviii.  c.  27.  Nothing,  however,  was  of  such 
effect  as  the  attention  which  monarchs  gave  to  the  constitution  and  dignity 
of  their  courts  of  justice.  It  was  the  ancient  custom  for  the  feudal 
monarchs  to  preside  themselves  in  their  courts,  and  to  administer  justice 
in  person.  (Marculf.,  lib.  i.  §  25  ;  Murat,  Dissert.  XXXI.)  Charlemagne, 
whilst  he  was  dressing,  used  to  call  parties  into  his  presence,  and,  having 
heard  and  considered  the  subject  of  litigation,  gave  judgment  concerning 
it.  (Eginhartus,  Vita  Caroli  Magni,  cited  by  Madox,  Hist,  of  Exchequer, 
vol.  i.  p.  91.)  This  trial  and  decision  of  causes  by  the  sovereigns  them- 
selves could  not  fail  of  rendering  their  courts  respectable.  St.  Louis, 
who  encouraged  to  the  utmost  the  practice  of  appeals,  revived  this  ancient 
custom,  and  administered  justice  in  person  with  all  the  ancient  simplicity. 
"  I  have  often  seen  the  saint,"  says  Joinville,  "  sit  under  the  shade  of  an 
oak  in  the  wood  of  Vincennes,  when  all  who  had  any  complaint  freely 
approached  him.  At  other  times  he  gave  orders  to  spread  a  carpet  in  a 
garden,  and,  seating  himself  upon  it,  heard  the  causes  that  were  brought 
before  him."  (Hist,  de  St.  Louis,  p.  13,  edit.  1761.)  Princes  of  inferior 
rank,  who  possessed  the  right  of  justice,  sometimes  dispensed  it  in  person, 
and  presided  in  theif  tribunals.  Two  instances  of  this  occur  with  respect 
to  the  dauphins  of  Vienne.  (Hist,  de  Dauphin^,  torn.  i.  p.  18.  torn.  ii. 
p.  257.)  But  as  kings  and  princes  could  not  decide  every  cause  in 
person,  nor  bring  them  all  to  be  determined  in  the  same  court,  they 
appointed  baillis,  with  a  right  of  jurisdiction,  in  different  districts  of 
their  kingdom.  These  possessed  powers  somewhat  similar  to  those  of  the 
ancient  comites.  It  was  towards  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  and 
beginning  of  the  thirteenth  that  this  office  was  first  instituted  in  France. 
(Brussel,  liv.  ii.  c.  35.)  When  the  king  had  a  court  established  in  different 
quarters  of  his  dominions,  this  invited  his  subjects  to  have  recourse  to  it. 
It  was  the  private  interest  of  the  baillis,  as  well  as  an  object  of  public 
policy,  to  extend  their  jurisdiction.  They  took  advantage  of  every  defect 
in  the  rights  of  the  barons,  and  of  every  error  in  their  proceedings,  to 
remove  causes  out  of  their  courts,  and  to  bring  them  under  their  own 
cognizance.  There  was  a  distinction  in  the  feudal  law,  and  an  extremely 
ancient  one,  between  the  high  justice  and  the  low.  (CapituL  3,  A.D. 
812,  §  4,  A.D.  815,  §  3;  Establ.  de  St.  Louis,  liv.  i  c.  40.)  Many 

R  2 


244  PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.        [NOTE  xxin. 

barons  possessed  the  latter  jurisdiction  who  had  no  title  to  the  former. 
The  former  included  the  right  of  trying  crimes  of  every  kind,  even  the 
highest ;  the  latter  was  confined  to  petty  trespasses.  This  furnished 
endless  pretexts  for  obstructing,  restraining,  and  reviewing  the  proceed 
ings  in  the  baron  courts.  (Ordon.,  ii.  457,  §  25  ;  458,  §  29.)  A 
regulation  of  greater  importance  succeeded  the  institution  of  baillis.  The 
king's  supreme  court  or  parliament  was  rendered  fixed  as  to  the  place  and 
constant  as  to  the  time  of  its  meetings.  In  France,  as  well  as  in  the 
other  feudal  kingdoms,  the  king's  court  of  justice  was  originally  ambu- 
latory, followed  the  person  of  the  monarch,  and  was  held  only  during 
some  of  the  great  festivals.  Philip  Augustus,  A.D.  1305,  rendered  it 
stationary  at  Paris,  and  continued  its  terms  during  the  greater  part  of  the 
year.  (Pasquier,  Recherches,  liv.  ii.  c.  2  et  3,  etc.  ;  Ordon.,  torn,  i  p.  366, 
§  62.)  He  and  his  successors  vested  extensive  powers  in  that  court ; 
they  granted  the  members  of  it  several  privileges  and  distinctions  which 
it  would  be  tedious  to  enumerate.  (Pasquier,  ibid.  ;  Velly,  Hist,  de 
France,  torn.  vii.  p.  307.)  Persons  eminent  for  integrity  and  skill  in 
law  were  appointed  judges  there.  (Ibid.)  By  degrees  the  final  decision 
of  all  causes  of  importance  was  brought  into  the  parliament  of  Paris,  and 
the  other  parliaments  which  administered  justice  in  the  king's  name,  in 
different  provinces  of  the  kingdom.  This  jurisdiction,  however,  the 
parliament  of  Paris  acquired  very  slowly,  and  the  great  vassals  of  the 
crown  made  violent  efforts  in  order  to  obstruct  the  attempts  of  that 
parliament  to  extend  its  authority.  Towards  the  close  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  Philip  the  Fair  was  obliged  to  prohibit  his  parliament  from 
taking  cognizance  of  certain  appeals  brought  into  it  from  the  courts  of 
the  count  of  Bretagne,  and  to  recognize  and  respect  his  right  of  supreme 
and  final  jurisdiction.  (Me*moires  pour  servir  de  Preuves  a  1'Histoire  de 
Bretagne,  par  Morice,  torn.  i.  pp.  1037,  1074.)  Charles  VI.,  at  the  end 
of  the  following  century,  was  obliged  to  confirm  the  rights  of  the  dukes 
of  Bretagne  in  still  more  ample  form.  (Ibid.,  torn.  ii.  pp.  580,  581.) 
So  violent  was  the  opposition  of  the  barons  to  this  right  of  appeal,  which 
they  considered  as  fatal  to  their  privileges  and  power,  that  the  authors 
of  the  Encycloptdie  have  mentioned  several  instances  in  which  barons 
put  to  death  or  mutilated  such  persons  as  ventured  to  appeal  from  the 
sentences  pronounced  in  their  courts  to  the  parliament  of  Paris  (torn,  xii., 
art.  Parlement,  p.  25). 

The  progress  of  jurisdiction  in  the  other  feudal  kingdoms  was  in  a 
great  measure  similar  to  that  which  we  have  traced  in  France.  In 
England  the  territorial  jurisdiction  of  the  barons  was  both  ancient  and 
extensive.  (Leg.  Edw.  Conf.,  nos.  5  and  9.)  After  the  Norman  Conquest 
it  became  more  strictly  feudal ;  and  it  is  evident  from  facts  recorded  in 
the  English  history,  as  well  as  from  the  institution  of  counties  paatine, 
which  I  have  already  mentioned,  that  the  usurpations  of  the  nobes  in 
England  were  not  less  bold  or  extensive  than  those  of  their  contemporaries 
on  the  continent.  The  same  expedients  were  employed  to  circumscribe 
or  abolish  those  dangerous  jurisdictions.  William  the  Conqueror  established 
a  constant  court  in  the  hall  of  his  palace ;  from  which  the  four  courts 
now  intrusted  with  the  administration  of  justice  in  England  took  their 
rise.  Henry  II.  divided  his  kingdom  into  six  circuits,  and  sent  itinerant 


xxiv.]        PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  245 

judges  to  hold  their  courts  in  them  at  stated  seasons.  (Blackstone's  Com- 
mentaries on  the  Laws  of  England,  voL  iii  p.  57.)  Jiistices  of  the  peace 
were  appointed  in  every  county  by  subsequent  monarch*,  to  whose  juris- 
diction the  people  gradually  had  recourse  in  many  civil  causes.  The 
privileges  of  the  counties  palatine  were  gradually  limited ;  with  respect 
to  some  points  they  were  abolished,  and  the  administration  of  justice  was 
brought  into  the  king's  courts,  or  before  judges  of  his  appointment  The 
several  steps  taken  for  this  purpose  are  enumerated  in  Dalrymple'a  History 
of  Feudal  Property,  chap.  vii. 

In  Scotland  the  usurpations  of  the  nobility  were  more  exorbitant  than 
in  any  other  feudal  kingdom.  The  progress  of  their  encroachments,  and 
the  methods  taken  by  the  crown  to  limit  or  abolish  their  territorial  and 
independent  jurisdictions,  both  which  I  had  occasion  to  consider  and 
explain  in  a  former  work,  differed  very  little  from  those  of  which  I  have 
now  given  the  detail  History  of  Scotland,  vol.  L  p.  37. 

I  should  perplex  myself  and  my  readers  in  the  labyrinth  of  German 
jurisprudence  if  I  were  to  attempt  to  delineate  the  progress  of  jurisdiction 
in  the  empire  with  a  minute  accuracy.  It  is  sufficient  to  observe  that  the 
authority  which  the  aulic  council  and  imperial  chamber  now  possess  took 
its  rise  from  the  same  desire  of  redressing  the  abuses  of  territorial  jurisdic- 
tion, and  was  acquired  in  the  same  manner  that  the  royal  courts  attained 
influence  in  other  countries  of  Europe.  All  the  important  facts  with 
respect  to  both  these  particulars  may  be  found  in  Phil.  Datt.  de  Pace 
Publica  Imperii,  lib.  iv.  The  capital  articles  are  pointed  out  in  Pfeffel, 
Abre'ge'  de  1'Histoire  du  Droit  publique  d'Allemagne,  pp.  556,  581  ;  and 
in  Trait^  du  Droit  publique  de  1'Empire,  par  M.  le  Coq  de  Villeray. 
The  two  last  treatises  are  of  great  authority,  having  been  composed  under 
the  eye  of  M.  Schoepflin  of  Strasburg,  one  of  the  ablest  public  lawyers  in 
Germany. 

NOTE  XXIV.— Sect  L  p.  63. 

It  ia  not  easy  to  fix  with  precision  the  period  at  which  ecclesiastics  first 
began  to  claim  exemption  from  the  civil  jurisdiction.  It  is  certain  that 
during  the  early  and  purest  ages  of  the  Church  they  pretended  to  no 
such  immunity.  The  authority  of  the  civil  magistrate  extended  to  all 
persons  and  to  all  causes.  This  fact  has  not  only  been  clearly  established 
by  Protestant  authors,  but  is  admitted  by  many  Roman  Catholics  of 
eminence,  and  particularly  by  the  writers  in  defence  of  the  liberties  of 
the  Gallican  Church.  There  are  several  original  papers  published  by 
Muratori,  which  show  that  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  causes  of  the 
greatest  importance  relating  to  ecclesiastics  were  still  determined  by  civil 
judges.  (Antiq.  ItaL,  vol.  v.  Dissert  LXX.)  Proofs  of  this  are  produced 
likewise  by  M.  Houard  (Anciennes  Lois  des  Fra^ois,  etc.,  voL  i.  p.  209.) 
Ecclesiastics  did  not  shake  off  all  at  once  their  subjection  to  civil  courts. 
This  privilege,  like  their  other  usurpations,  was  acquired  slowly,  and 
Btep  by  step.  This  exemption  seems  at  first  to  have  been  merely  an 
act  of  complaisance,  flowing  from  veneration  for  their  character.  Thus, 
from  a  charter  of  Charlemagne  in  favour  of  the  church  of  Mans,  A.D.  796. 
to  which  M.  I'Abbe'  de  Foy  refers  in  his  Notice  de  Diplomes,  torn  L, 


246  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.         [NOTE  xxiv. 

p.  201,  that  monarch  directs  Ids  judges,  if  any  difference  should  arise 
between  the  administrators  of  the  revenues  of  that  church  and  any  person 
whatever,  not  to  summon  the  administrators  to  appear  in  "  mallo  publico," 
but  first  of  all  to  meet  with  them,  and  to  endeavour  to  accommodate  the 
iifterence  in  an  amicable  manner.  This  indulgence  was  in  process  of 
time  improved  into  a  legal  exemption  ;  which  was  founded  on  the  same 
superstitious  respect  of  the  laity  for  the  clerical  character  and  function. 
A  remarkable  instance  of  this  occurs  in  a  charter  of  Frederic  Barbarossa, 
A.D.  1172,  to  the  monastery  of  Altenburg.  He  grants  them  "judicium 
non  tantum  sanguinolentis  plagae,  sed  vitae  et  mortis  ;"  he  prohibits  any 
of  the  royal  judges  from  disturbing  their  jurisdiction  ;  and  the  reason 
which  he  gives  for  this  ample  concession  is,  "  nam  quorum,  ex  Dei  gratia, 
ratione  divini  ministerii  onus  leve  est,  et  jugum  suave ;  nos  penitus 
nolumus  illos  oppressionis  contumelia,  vel  manu  laica,  fatigari."  Mencken, 
Script.  Rer.  Germ.,  vol.  iii.  p.  1067. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  illustrating  what  is  contained  in  the  text,  that 
I  should  describe  the  manner  in  which  the  code  of  the  canon  law  was 
compiled,  or  show  that  the  doctrines  in  it  most  favourable  to  the  power  of 
the  clergy  are  founded  on  ignorance,  or  supported  by  fraud  and  forgery. 
The  reader  will  find  a  full  account  of  these  in  Gerard,  van  Mastricht,  His- 
toria  Juris  Ecclesiastici,  and  in  Science  du  Gouvernement,  par  M.  Rdal, 
torn.  vii.  c.  1  et  3,  §§  2,  3,  etc.  The  history  of  the  progress  and  extent  of 
ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  with  an  account  of  the  arts  which  the  clergy 
employed  in  order  to  draw  causes  of  every  kind  into  the  spiritual  courts, 
is  no  less  curious,  and  would  throw  great  light  upon  many  of  the  customs 
and  institutions  of  the  Dark  Ages  ;  but  it  is  likewise  foreign  from  the  pre- 
sent subject.  Du  Cange,  in  his  Glossary,  voc.  Curia  Christianitatis,  has 
collected  most  of  the  causes  with  respect  to  which  the  clergy  arrogated  an 
exclusive  jurisdiction,  and  refers  to  the  authors,  or  original  papers,  which 
confirm  his  observations.  Giannone,  in  his  Civil  History  of  Naples,  lib. 
xix.  §  3,  has  ranged  these  under  proper  heads,  and  scrutinizes  the  preten- 
sions of  the  Church  with  his  usual  boldness  and  discernment.  M.  Fleury 
observes  that  the  clergy  multiplied  the  pretexts  for  extending  the  authority 
of  the  spiritual  courts  with  so  much  boldness  that  it  was  soon  in  their 
power  to  withdraw  almost  every  person  and  every  cause  from  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  civil  magistrate.  (Hist.  Eccle's.,  torn,  xix.,  Disc.  Prelim.,  16.) 
But,  how  ill  founded  soever  the  jurisdiction  of  the  clergy  may  have  been, 
or  whatever  might  be  the  abuses  to  which  their  manner  of  exercising  it 
gave  rise,  the  principles  and  forms  of  their  jurisprudence  were  far  more 
perfect  than  that  which  was  known  in  the  civil  courts.  It  seems  to  be 
certain  that  ecclesiastics  never  submitted,  during  any  period  in  th=  Middle 
Ages,  to  the  laws  contained  in  the  codes  of  the  barbarous  nations,  but  were 
governed  entirely  by  the  Roman  law.  They  regulated  all  their  transac- 
tions by  such  of  its  maxims  as  were  preserved  by  tradition  or  were  con- 
tained in  the  Theodosian  Code  and  other  books  extant  among  them.  This 
we  learn  from  a  custom  which  prevailed  universally  in  those  ages.  Every 
person  was  permitted  to  choose,  among  the  various  codes  of  laws  then  in 
force,  that  to  which  he  was  willing  to  conform.  In  any  transaction  of  import- 
ance, it  was  usual  for  the  persons  contracting  to  mention  the  law  to  which 
they  submitted  that  it  might  be  known  how  any  controversy  that  should 


NOTE  xxnr.]        PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  247 

arise  between  them  was  to  be  decided.  Innumerable  proofs  of  this  occui 
in  the  charters  of  the  Middle  Ages.  But  the  clergy  considered  it  as  such 
a  valuable  privilege  of  their  order  to  be  governed  by  the  Roman  law,  that 
when  any  person  entered  into  holy  orders  it  was  usual  for  him  to  renounce 
the  code  of  laws  to  which  he  had  been  formerly  subject,  and  to  declare  that 
he  now  submitted  to  the  Roman  law.  "  Constat  me  Johannem  clericum, 
filium  quondam  Verandi,  qui  professus  sum,  ex  natione  mea,  lege  vivere 
Longobardorum,  sed  tamen,  pro  honore  ecclesiastico,  lege  nunc  videor 
vivere  Romana."  (Charta,  A.D.  1072.)  "  Farulfus  presbyter  qui  pro- 
fessus sum,  more  sacerdotii  mei,  lege  vivere  Romana."  Charta,  A.D.  107&; 
Muratori,  Antichita  Estensi,  vol.  i.  p.  78.  See  likewise  Houard.  Anciennes 
Loix  des  Fran§ois,  etc.,  vol.  i.  p.  203. 

The  code  of  the  canon  law  began  to  be  compiled  early  in  the  ninth 
century.  (Mem.  de  1'Acad.  des  Inscript,  torn,  xviii.  p.  346,  etc.)  It  was 
above  two  centuries  after  that  before  any  collection  was  made  of  those 
customs  which  were  the  rule  of  judgments  in  the  courts  of  the  barons. 
Spiritual  judges  decided,  of  course,  according  to  written  and  known  laws  : 
lay  judges,  left  without  any  fixed  guide,  were  directed  by  loose  traditionary 
customs.  But,  besides  this  general  advantage  of  the  canon  law,  its  forms 
and  principles  were  more  consonant  to  reason,  and  more  favourable  to  the 
equitable  decision  of  every  point  in  controversy,  than  those  which  prevailed 
in  lay  courts.  It  appears  from  notes  XXI.  and  XXIII.,  concerning  private 
wars  and  the  trial  by  combat,  that  the  whole  spirit  of  ecclesiastical  juris- 
prudence was  adverse  to  those  sanguinary  customs,  which  were  destructive 
of  justice  ;  and  the  whole  force  of  ecclesiastical  authority  was  exerted  to 
abolish  them,  and  to  substitute  trials  by  law  and  evidence  in  their  room. 
Almost  all  the  forms  in  lay  courts  which  contribute  to  establish  and  con- 
tinue to  preserve  order  in  judicial  proceedings  are  borrowed  from  the  canon 
law.  (Fleury,  Instit.  du  Droit  Canon.,  part  iii.  c.  6,  p.  52.)  St.  Louis, 
in  his  Establissemens,  confirms  many  of  his  new  regulations  concerning 
property  and  the  administration  of  justice  by  the  authority  of  the  canon 
law,  from  which  he  borrowed  them.  Thus,  for  instance,  the  first  hint  of 
attaching  movables  for  the  recovery  of  a  debt  was  taken  from  the  canon 
law,  (Estab.,  ^v.  ii.  c.  21  et  40.)  And  likewise  the  cessio  bonorum, 
by  a  person  wio  was  insolvent.  (Ibid.)  In  the  same  manner,  he  estab- 
lished new  regulations  with  respect  to  the  effects  of  persons  dying  intestate 
(liv.  i.  c.  89).  These  and  many  other  salutary  regulations  the  canonists 
had  borrowed  from  the  Roman  law.  Many  other  examples  might  be  pro- 
duced of  more  perfect  jurisprudence  in  the  canon  law  than  was  known  in 
lay  courts.  For  that  reason  it  was  deemed  a  high  privilege  to  be  subject 
to  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction.  Among  the  many  immunities  by  which  men 
were  allured  to  engage  in  the  dangeroiis  expeditions  for  the  recovery  of  the 
Holy  Land,  one  of  the  most  considerable  was  the  declaring  such  as  tooi. 
the  cross  to  be  subject  only  to  the  spiritual  courts,  and  to  the  rules  of 
decision  observed  in  them.  See  Note  XIIL,  and  Du  Cange,  voc.  Crutit 


248  PBOOFS  AND  ILLUSTKAT10NS.          [NOTE  xxv. 


NOTE  XXV.— Sect  I.  p.  65. 

The  rapidity  with  which  the  knowledge  and  study  of  the  Roman  law 
spread  over  Europe  is  amazing.  The  copy  of  the  Pandects  was  found  4t 
Amalfi,  A.D.  1137.  Irnerius  opened  a  college  of  civil  law  at  Bologna  a. 
few  years  after.  (Giann.,  Hist.,  book  xi.  c.  2.)  It  began  to  be  taught  as 
a  part  of  academical  learning  in  different  parts  of  France  before  the  middle 
of  the  century.  Vaccarius  gave  lectures  on  the  civil  law  at  Oxford  as  early 
as  the  year  1147.  A  regular  system  of  feudal  law,  formed  plainly  in 
imitation  of  the  Roman  code,  was  composed  by  two  Milanese  lawyers  about 
the  year  1150.  Gratian  published  the  code  of  canon  law,  with  large 
additions  and  emendations,  about  the  same  time.  The  earliest  collection 
of  those  customs  which  served  as  the  rules  of  decision  in  the  courts  of 
justice  is  the  Assises  de  Jerusalem.  They  were  compiled,  as  the  preamble 
informs  us,  in  the  year  1099,  and  are  called  "Jus  Consuetudinarium  quo 
regebatur  Regnum  Orientale."  (Willerm.  Tyr.,  lib.  xix.  c.  2.)  But  pecu- 
liar circumstances  gave  occasion  to  this  early  compilation.  The  victorious 
crusaders  settled  as  a  colony  in  a  foreign  country,  and  adventurers  from  a!1 
the  different  nations  of  Europe  composed  this  new  society.  It  was  neces- 
sary on  that  account  to  ascertain  the  laws  and  customs  which  were  to 
regulate  the  transactions  of  business  and  the  administration  of  justice 
among  them.  But  in  no  country  of  Europe  was  there,  at  that  time,  any 
collection  of  customs,  nor  had  any  attempt  been  made  to  render  law  fixed. 
The  first  undertaking  of  that  kind  was  by  Glanville,  lord  chief  justice  of 
England,  in  his  Tractatus  de  Legibus  et  Consuetudinibus  Anglia?,  composed 
about  the  year  1181.  The  Regiam  Majestatem  in  Scotland,  ascribed  to 
David  L,  seems  to  be  an  imitation,  and  a  servile  one,  of  Glanville.  Several 
Scottish  antiquaries,  under  the  influence  of  that  pious  credulity  which  dis- 
poses men  to  assent  without  hesitation  to  whatever  they  deem  for  the 
honour  of  their  native  country,  contend  zealously  that  the  Regiam  Majes- 
tatem is  a  production  prior  to  the  treatise  of  Glanville,  and  have  brought 
themselves  to  believe  that  a  nation  in  a  superior  state  of  improvement  bor- 
rowed its  laws  and  institutions  from  one  considerably  less  advanced  in  its 
political  progress.  The  internal  evidence  (were  it  my  province  to  examine 
it)  by  which  this  theory  might  be  refuted  is,  in  my  opinion,  decisive.  The 
external  circumstances  which  have  seduced  Scottish  authors  into  this  mis- 
take ha  ye  been  explained  with  so  much  precision  and  candour  by  Sir 
David  Dalrymple,  in  his  examination  of  some  of  the  arguments  for  the 
high  antiquity  of  the  Regiam  Majestatem  (Edin.,  1769,  4to),  that  it  is  to  be 
hoped  the  controversy  will  not  be  again  revived.  Pierre  de  Fontaines,  wh^ 
tells  us  that  he  was  the  first  who  had  attempted  such  a  work  in  France, 
composed  his  Conseil,  which  contains  an  account  of  the  customs  of  the 
country  of  Vermandois  in  the  reign  of  St.  Louis,  which  began  Jt.  n. 
1226.  Beaumanoir,  the  author  of  the  Coustumes  de  Beauvoisis,  lived  about 
the  same  time.  The  Establissemens  of  St.  Louis,  containing  a  large  col- 
lection of  the  customs  which  prevailed  within  the  royal  domains,  were 
published  by  the  authority  of  that  monarch.  As  soon  as  men  became 
acquainted  with  the  advantages  of  having  written  customs  and  laws  to 
which  they  could  have  recourse  on  every  occasion,  the  practice  of  col- 


NOTE  xxvi.]        PROOFS  AND   ILLUSTRATIONS.  249 

lecting  them  became  common.  Charles  VII.  of  France,  by  an  ordinance 
A.D.  1453,  appointed  the  customary  laws  in  every  province  of  France  to  be 
collected  and  arranged.  Velly  et  Villaret,  Histoire,  torn.  xvi.  p.  113. 

His  successor,  Louis  XL,  renewed  the  injunction.  But  this  salutary 
undertaking  hath  never  been  fully  executed,  and  the  jurisprudence  of  the 
French  nation  remains  more  obscure  and  uncertain  than  it  would  have  been 
if  these  prudent  regulations  of  their  monarchs  had  taken  effect.  A  mode 
of  judicial  determination  was  established  in  the  Middle  Ages,  which  affords 
the  clearest  proof  that  judges,  while  they  had  no  other  rule  to  direct  their 
decrees  but  unwritten  and  traditionary  customs,  were  often  at  a  loss  how 
to  find  out  the  facts  and  principles  according  to  which  they  were  bound  to 
decide.  They  were  obliged,  in  dubious  cases,  to  call  a  certain  number  of 
old  men,  and  to  lay  the  case  before  them,  that  they  might  inform  them 
what  was  the  practice  or  custom  with  regard  to  the  point.  This  was  called 
enqueste  par  tourbe.  (Du  Cange,  voc.  Turbo,.)  The  effects  of  the  revival 
of  the  Roman  jurisprudence  have  been  explained  by  M.  de  Montesquieu 
(liv.  xxviii.  c.  42),  and  by  Mr.  Hume  (Hist,  of  England,  vol.  ii  p.  441). 
I  have  adopted  many  of  their  ideas.  Who  can  pretend  to  review  any  sub- 
ject which  such  writers  have  considered,  without  receiving  from  them 
light  and  information  ?  At  the  same  time,- 1  am  convinced  that  the  know- 
ledge of  the  Roman  law  was  not  so  entirely  lost  in  Europe  during  the 
Middle  Ages  as  is  commonly  believed.  My  subject  does  not  require  me 
to  examine  this  point.  Many  striking  facts  with  regard  to  it  are  col- 
lected by  Donato  Antonio  d'  Asti,  Dell'  Uso  e  Autoritk  della  Ragione  civile 
nelle  Provincie  dell'  Imperio  Occidentale,  Nap.,  1751,  2  vols.  8vo. 

That  the  civil  law  is  intimately  connected  with  the  municipal  jurispru- 
dence in  several  countries  of  Europe  is  a  fact  so  well  known  that  it  needs 
no  illustration.  Even  in  England,  where  the  common  law  is  supposed  to 
form  a  system  perfectly  distinct  from  the  Roman  code,  and  although  such 
as  apply  in  that  country  to  the  study  of  the  common  law  boast  of  this 
distinction  with  some  degree  of  affectation,  it  is  evident  that  many  of  the 
ideas  and  maxims  of  the  civil  law  are  incorporated  into  the  English 
jurisprudence.  This  is  well  illustrated  by  the  ingenious  and  learned 
author  of  Observations  on  the  Statutes,  chiefly  the  more  Ancient,  3d  edit., 
p.  76,  etc. 

NOTE  XXVI. —Sect.  I.  p.  66. 

The  whole  history  of  the  Middle  Ages  makes  it  evident  that  war  was 
the  sole  profession  of  gentlemen,  and  almost  the  only  object  attended  to  in 
their  education.  Even  after  some  change  in  manners  began  to  take  place, 
and  the  civil  arts  of  life  had  acquired  some  reputation,  the  ancient  ideas 
with  respect  to  the  accomplishments  necessary  for  a  person  of  noble  birth 
continued  long  in  force.  In  the  Me'ruoires  de  Fleuranges,  p.  9,  etc.,  we 
have  an  account  of  the  youthful  exercises  and  occupations  of  Francis  I., 
and  they  were  altogether  martial  and  athletic.  That  father  of  letters  owed 
his  relish  for  them,  not  to  education,  but  to  his  own  good  sense  and  good 
taste.  The  manners  of  the  superior  order  of  ecclesiastics  during  the 
Middle  Ages  furnish  the  strongest  proof  that,  in  some  instances,  the  dis- 
tinction of  professions  was  not  completely  ascertained  in  Europe.  The 


250  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.      [NOTE  xxvm. 

functions  and  character  of  the  clergy  are  obviously  very  different  from  those 
of  laymen  ;  and  among  the  inferior  orders  of  churchmen  this  constituted  a 
distinct  character  separate  from  that  of  other  citizens.  But  the  dignified 
ecclesiastics,  who  were  frequently  of  noble  birth,  were  above  such  a  distinc- 
tion ;  they  retained  the  idea  of  what  belonged  to  them  as  gentlemen,  and, 
in  spite  of  the  decrees  of  popes  or  the  canons  of  councils,  they  bore  arms, 
led  their  vassals  to  the  field,  and  fought  at  their  head  in  battle.  Among 
them  the  priesthood  was  scarcely  a  separate  profession  ;  the  military  accom- 
plishments which  they  thought  essential  to  them  as  gentlemen  were  culti- 
vated ;  the  theological  science  and  pacific  virtues  suitable  to  their  spiritual 
function  were  neglected  and  despised. 

As  soon  as  the  science  of  law  became  a  laborious  study,  and  the  practice 
of  it  a  separate  profession,  such  persons  as  rose  to  eminence  in  it  obtained 
honours  which  had  formerly  been  appropriated  to  soldiers.  Knighthood 
was  the  most  illustrious  mark  of  distinction  during  several  ages,  and  con- 
ferred privileges  to  which  rank  or  birth  alone  was  not  entitled.  To  this 
high  dignity  persons  eminent  for  their  knowledge  of  law  were  advanced, 
and  were  thereby  placed  on  a  level  with  those  whom  their  military  talents 
had  rendered  conspicuous.  Miles  justitice,  miles  literatus,  became  common 
titles.  Matthew  Paris  mentions  such  knights  as  early  as  A.D.  1251.  If  a 
judge  attained  a  certain  rank  in  the  courts  of  justice,  that  alone  gave  him 
a  right  to  the  honour  of  knighthood.  (Pasquier,  Recherches,  liv.  xi.  c.  16, 
p.  130 ;  Dissertations  historiques  sur  la  Che  valeric,  par  Honors'  de 
Sainte-Marie,  p.  164,  etc.)  A  profession  that  led  to  offices  which  enno- 
bled the  persons  who  held  them  grew  into  credit,  and  the  people  of 
Europe  became  accustomed  to  see  men  rise  to  eminence  by  civil  as  well  as 
military  talents. 

NOTE  XXVII.— Sect.  I.  p.  69. 

The  chief  intention  of  these  notes  was  to  bring  at  once  under  the  view  of 
my  readers  such  facts  and  circumstances  as  tend  to  illustrate  or  confirm 
what  is  contained  in  that  part  of  the  history  to  which  they  refer.  When 
these  lay  scattered  in  many  different  authors,  and  were  taken  from  books 
not  generally  known,  or  which  many  of  my  readers  might  find  it  disagree- 
able to  consult,  I  thought  it  would  be  of  advantage  to  collect  them  together. 
But  when  every  thing  necessary  for  the  proof  or  illustration  of  my  narra- 
tive or  reasoning  may  be  found  in  any  one  book  which  is  generally  known, 
or  deserves  to  be  so,  I  shall  satisfy  myself  with  referring  to  it.  This  is  the 
case  with  respect  to  chivalry.  Almost  every  fact  which  I  have  mentioned 
in  the  text,  together  with  many  other  curious  and  instructive  particulars 
concerning  this  singular  institution,  may  be  found  in  Memoires  sur  1'ancienne 
Chevalerie  conside're'e  comme  une  Establissement  politique  et  militaire,  par 
M.  de  la  Curne  de  Ste.  Palaye. 

NOTE  XXVIII.— Sect.  I.  p.  74. 

The  subject  of  my  inquiries  does  not  call  me  to  write  a  history  of  the 
progress  of  science.  The  facts  and  observations  which  I  have  produced  are 
<mffi<  ient  to  illustrate  the  effects  of  its  progress  upon  manners  and  the  state 


NOTE  xxvni.]      PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  251 

of  society.  While  science  was  altogether  extinct  in  the  western  parts  ol 
Europe,  it  was  cultivated  in  Constantinople  and  other  parts  of  the  Grecian 
empire.  But  the  subtile  genius  of  the  Greeks  turned  almost  entirely  to 
theological  disputation.  The  Latins  borrowed  that  spirit  from  them,  an  1 
many  of  the  controversies  which  still  occupy  and  divide  theologians  took 
their  rise  among  the  Greeks,  from  whom  the  other  Europeans  derived  a  con 
siderable  part  of  their  knowledge.  (See  the  testimony  of  JSneas  Silvius, 
ap.  Coringium  de  Antiq.  Academicis,  p.  43  ;  Histoire  litte'raire  de  France, 
torn.  vii.  p.  113,  etc.,  torn.  ix.  p.  151,  etc.)  Soon  after  the  empire  of  the 
Caliphs  was  established  in  the  East,  some  illustrious  princes  arose  among 
them,  who  encouraged  science.  But  when  the  Arabians  turned  their 
attention  to  the  literature  cultivated  by  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans, 
the  chaste  and  correct  taste  of  their  works  of  genius  appeared  frigid  and 
unauimated  to  a  people  of  a  more  warm  imagination.  Though  they  conld 
not  admire  the  poets  and  historians  of  Greece  or  of  Rome,  they  were  sensi- 
ble to  the  merit  of  their  philosophers.  The  operations  of  the  intellect  are 
more  fixed  and  uniform  than  those  of  the  fancy  or  taste.  Truth  makes  an 
impression  nearly  the  same  in  every  place  ;  the  ideas  of  what  is  beautiful, 
elegant,  or  sublime  vary  in  different  climates.  The  Arabians,  though  they 
neglected  Homer,  translated  the  most  eminent  of  the  Greek  philosophers 
into  their  own  language,  and,  guided  by  their  precepts  and  discoveries, 
applied  themselves  with  great  ardour  to  the  study  of  geometry,  astronomy, 
medicine,  dialectics,  and  metaphysics.  In  the  three  former  they  made  con- 
siderable and  useful  improvements,  which  have  contributed  not  a  little  to 
advance  those  sciences  to  that  high  degree  of  perfection  which  they  have 
attained.  In  the  two  latter  they  chose  Aristotle  for  their  guide,  and,  refin- 
ing on  the  subtle  and  distinguishing  spirit  which  characterizes  his  philoso- 
phy, they  rendered  it  in  a  great  degree  frivolous  and  unintelligible.  The 
schools  established  in  the  East  for  teaching  and  cultivating  these  sciences 
were  in  high  reputation.  They  communicated  their  love  of  science  to 
their  countrymen,  who  conquered  Africa  and  Spain  ;  and  the  schools 
instituted  there  were  little  inferior  in  fame  to  those  in  the  East.  Many  of 
the  persons  who  distinguished  themselves  by  their  proficiency  in  science 
during  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  were  educated  among  the 
Arabians.  Bruckerus  collects  many  instances  of  this  (Histor.  Philos.,  vol. 
iii.  p.  681,  etc.).  Almost  all  the  men  eminent  for  science  during  several 
centuries,  if  they  did  not  resort  in  person  to  the  schools  in  Africa  and 
Spain,  were  instructed  in  the  philosophy  of  the  Arabians.  The  first  know- 
ledge of  the  Aristotelian  philosophy  in  the  Middle  Ages  was  acquired  by 
translations  of  Aristotle's  works  out  of  the  Arabic.  The  Arabian  commen- 
tators were  deemed  the  most  skilful  and  authentic  guides  in  the  study  of 
his  system.  (Conring.,  Antiq.  Acad.,  Diss.  III.  p.  95,  etc.  ;  Supplem., 
p.  241,  etc.  ;  Murat.,  Antiquit.  Ital.,  vol.  iii.  p.  932,  etc.)  From  them 
the  schoolmen  derived  the  genius  and  principles  of  their  philosophy,  which 
contributed  so  much  to  retard  the  progress  of  true  science. 

The  establishment  of  colleges  or  universities  is  a  remarkable  era  in 
literary  history.  The  schools  in  cathedrals  and  monasteries  confined  them- 
selves chiefly  to  the  teaching  of  grammar.  There  were  only  one  or  two 
masters  employed  in  that  office.  But  in  colleges,  professors  were  appointed 
tn  teach  all  the  different  parts  of  science.  The  course  or  order  of  education 


252  PROOifS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.        [NOTE  xxix. 

was  fixed.  The  time  that  ought  to  be  allotted  to  the  study  of  each  science 
was  ascertained.  A  regular  form  of  trying  the  proficiency  of  students  was 
prescribed  ;  and  academical  titles  and  honours  were  conferred  on  such  as 
acquitted  themselves  with  approbation.  A  good  account  of  the  origin  and 
nature  of  these  is  given  by  Seb.  Bacmeisterus,  Antiquitates  Rostochienses, 
sive  Historia  Urbis  et  Academies  Rostoch.  ap.  Monumenta  inedita  Rer. 
Germ.,  per  E.  J.  de  Westphalen,  vol.  iii.  p.  781,  Lips.,  1743.  The  first 
obscure  mention  of  these  academical  degrees  in  the  University  of  Paris 
(from  which  the  other  universities  in  Europe  have  borrowed  most  of  their 
customs  and  institutions)  occurs  A.D.  1216.  (Crevier,  Hist,  de  1'Univ.  de 
Paris,  torn.  i.  p.  296,  etc.)  They  were  completely  established  A.D.  1231. 
(Ibid.,  248.)  It  is  unnecessary  to  enumerate  the  several  privileges  to 
which  bachelors,  masters,  and  doctors  were  entitled.  One  circumstance  is 
sufficient  to  demonstrate  the  high  degree  of  estimation  in  which  they  were 
held.  Doctors  in  the  different  faculties  contended  with  knights  for  prece- 
dence, and  the  dispute  was  terminated  in  many  instances  by  advanc- 
ing the  former  to  the  dignity  of  knighthood,  the  high  prerogatives  of 
which  I  have  mentioned.  It  was  even  asserted  that  a  doctor  had  a  right 
to  that  title  without  creation.  Bartolus  taught  "doctorem  actualiter  re- 
gentem  in  jure  civili  per  decennium  effici  militem  ipso  facto."  (Honore*  de 
Ste.  Marie,  Dissert.,  p.  165.)  This  was  called  "  chevalerie  de  lectures," 
and  the  persons  advanced  to  that  dignity,  "milites  clerici."  These 
new  establishments  for  education,  together  with  the  extraordinary  honours 
conferred  on  learned  men,  greatly  increased  the  number  of  scholars.  In 
the  year  1262  there  were  ten  thousand  students  in  the  university  of 
Bologna ;  and  it  appears  from  the  history  of  that  university  that  law  was 
the  only  science  taught  in  it  at  that  time.  In  the  year  1340  there  were 
thirty  thousand  in  the  University  of  Oxford.  (Speed's  Chron.,  ap.  Ander- 
son's Chronol.  Deduction  of  Commerce,  voL  i.  p.  172.)  In  the  same 
century,  ten  thousand  persons  voted  in  a  question  agitated  in  the  University 
of  Paris ;  and,  as  graduates  alone  were  admitted  to  that  privilege,  the 
number  of  students  must  have  been  very  great.  (Velly,  Hist  de  France, 
torn,  xi  p.  147.)  There  were  indeed  few  universities  in  Europe  at  that 
time ;  but  such  a  number  of  students  may  nevertheless  be  produced  as  a 
proof  of  the  extraordinary  ardour  with  which  men  applied  to  the  study  of 
science  in  those  ages;  it  shows,  likewise,  that  they  already  began  to 
consider  other  professions  beside  that  of  a  soldier  as  honourable  and 
useful. 

NOTE  XXIX.— Sect  L  p.  75. 

The  great  variety  of  subjects  which  I  have  endeavoured  to  illustrate, 
and  the  extent  of  this  tipon  which  I  now  enter,  will  justify  my  adopting  the 
words  of  M.  de  Montesqiiieu  when  he  begins  to  treat  of  commerce.  "  The 
»dbject  which  follows  would  require  to  be  discussed  more  at  large  ;  but  the 
nature  of  this  work  does  not  permit  it  I  wish  to  glide  on  a  tranquil 
stream  ;  Hit  I  am  hurried  along  by  a  torrent." 

Many  proofs  occur  in  history  of  the  little  intercourse  between  nations 
during  the  Mid.  lie  Ages.  Towards  the  close  of  the  tenth  century,  Count 
Bouchard,  intending  to  found  a  monastery  at  St  Maur  des  Fosses,  near 


NOTE  xxix.]        PEOOFS  AND  ILLTJSTEATIONS.  253 

Paris,  applied  to  an  abbot  of  Clugny,  in  Burgundy,  famous  for  his  sanctity, 
entreating  him  to  conduct  the  monks  thither.  The  language  in  which  he 
addressed  that  holy  man  is  singular :  he  tells  him  that  he  had  undertaken 
the  labour  of  such  a  great  journey  ;  that  he  was  fatigued  with  the  length  of 
it,  therefore  hoped  to  obtain  his  request,  and  that  his  journey  iiuto  such  a 
distant  country  should  not  be  in  vain.  The  answer  of  the  abbot  is  still 
more  extraordinary.  He  refused  to  comply  with  his  desire,  as  it  would 
be  extremely  fatiguing  to  go  along  with  him  into  a  strange  and  unknown 
region.  (Vita  Burchardi  venerabilis  Comitis,  ap.  Bouquet,  Rec.  des  Hist., 
vol.  x.  p.  351.)  Even  so  late  as  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  the 
monks  of  Feiiieres,  in  the  diocese  of  Sens,  did  not  know  that  there  was 
such  a  city  as  Tournay  in  Flanders  ;  and  the  monks  of  St.  Martin  of  Tour- 
nay  were  equally  unacquainted  with  the  situation  of  Ferrieres.  A  trans- 
action in  which  they  were  both  concerned  made  it  necessary  for  them  to 
have  some  intercourse.  The  mutual  interest  of  both  monasteries  prompted 
each  to  find  out  the  situation  of  the  other.  After  a  long  search,  which  is 
particularly  described,  the  discovery  was  made  by  accident.  (Herimannus 
Abbas,  de  Restauratione  St.  Martini  Tornacensis,  ap.  Dacher.  Spicil.,  vol. 
xiL  p.  400.)  The  ignorance  of  the  Middle  Ages  with  respect  to  the  situa- 
tion and  geography  of  remote  countries  was  still  more  remarkable.  The 
most  ancient  geographical  chart  which  now  remains  as  a  monument  of  the 
state  of  that  science  in  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages  is  found  in  a  manu- 
script of  the  Chronique  de  St.  Denys.  There  the  three  parts  of  the  earth 
then  known  are  so  represented  that  Jerusalem  is  placed  in  the  middle  of  the 
globe,  and  Alexandria  appears  to  be  as  near  to  it  as  Nazareth.  (Me'm.  de 
FAcad.  des  Belles-Lettres,  torn.  xvi.  p.  185.)  There  seems  to  have  been 
no  inns  or  houses  of  entertainment  for  the  reception  of  travellers  during 
the  Middle  Ages.  (Murat.,  Antiq.  ItaL,  vol.  iii.  p.  581,  etc.)  This  is 
a  proof  of  the  little  intercourse  which  took  place  between  different  nations. 
Among  people  whose  manners  are  simple,  and  who  are  seldom  visited  by 
strangers,  hospitality  is  a  virtue  of  the  first  rank.  This  duty  of  hospitality 
was  so  necessary  in  that  state  of  society  which  took  place  during  the  Middle 
Ages  that  it  was  not  considered  as  one  of  those  virtues  which  men  may 
practise  or  not,  according  to  the  temper  of  their  minds  and  the  generosity 
of  their  hearts.  Hospitality  was  enforced  by  statutes,  and  such  as  neglected 
this  duty  were  liable  to  punishment.  "  Quicunque  hospiti  venienti  lectum 
aut  focum  negaverit,  trium  solidorum  inlatione  mulctetur."  (Leg.  Bur- 
gund.  tit.  xxxviii.  §  1.)  "Si  quis  homini  aliquo  pergenti  in  itinere  man- 
sionem  vetaverit,  sexaginta  solidos  componat  in  publico."  (Capitul.,  lib. 
vi.  §  82.)  This  increase  of  the  penalty,  at  a  period  so  long  after  that  in 
which  the  laws  of  the  Burgundians  were  published,  and  when  the  state  of 
society  was  much  improved,  is  very  remarkable.  Other  laws  of  the  same 
purport  are  collected  by  Jo.  Fred.  Polac.,  Systema  Jurisprud.  Germanicae, 
Lips.,  1 733,  p.  75.  The  laws  of  the  Slavi  were  more  rigorous  than  any  that 
he  mentions  :  they  ordained  that  the  movables  of  an  inhospitable  person 
should  be  confiscated,  and  his  house  burnt.  They  were  even  so  solicitous 
for  the  entertainment  of  strangers  that  they  permitted  the  landlord  to  steal 
for  the  support  of  his  guest.  "  Quod  noctu  furatus  fueris,  eras  appone 
hospitibus."  (Rerum  Mecleburgicar.,  lib.  viii.  a  Mat.  Jo.  Beehr.,  Lips., 
1751,  p.  50.)  In  consequence  of  these  laws,  or  of  the  state  of  society 


254  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.        [NOTE  xxix. 

which  made  it  proper  to  enact  them,  hospitality  abounded  while  the  inter 
course  among  men  was  inconsiderable,  and  secured  the  stranger  a  kind 
reception  under  every  roof  where  he  chose  to  take  shelter.  This,  too, 
proves  clearly  that  the  intercourse  among  men  was  rare  ;  for  as  soon  as  this 
became  frequent,  what  was  a  pleasure  became  a  burden,  and  the  entertaining 
of  travellers  was  converted  into  a  branch  of  commerce. 

But  the  laws  of  the  Middle  Ages  afford  a  proof  still  more  convincing  of 
the  small  intercourse  between  different  nations.  The  genius  of  the  feudal 
system,  as  well  as  the  spirit  of  jealousy  which  always  accompanies  ignorance, 
concurred  in  discouraging  strangers  from  settling  in  any  new  country.  If 
a  person  removed  from  one  province  in  a  kingdon  to  another,  he  was 
bound  within  a  year  and  a  day  to  acknowledge  himself  the  vassal  of  the 
baron  in  whose  estate  he  settled  ;  if  he  neglected  to  do  so,  he  became  liable 
to  a  penalty  ;  and  if  at  his  death  he  neglected  to  leave  a  certain  legacy  to 
the  baron  within  whose  territory  he  had  resided,  all  his  goods  were  confis- 
cated. The  hardships  imposed  on  foreigners  settling  in  a  country  were  still 
more  intolerable.  In  more  early  times  the  superior  lord  of  any  territory  in 
which  a  foreigner  settled  might  seize  his  person  and  reduce  him  to  servi- 
tude. V«ry  striking  instances  of  this  occur  in  the  history  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  The  cruel  depredations  of  the  Normans  in  the  ninth  century  obliged 
many  inhabitants  of  the  maritime  provinces  of  France  to  fly  into  the  interior 
parts  of  the  kingdom.  But,  instead  of  being  received  with  that  humanity 
to  which  their  wretched  condition  entitled  them,  they  were  reduced  to  a 
state  of  servitude.  Both  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  powers  found  it  neces- 
sary to  interpose  in  order  to  put  a  stop  to  this  barbarous  practice.  (Pot- 
giesser.,  de  Statu  Servor.,  lib.  i.  c.  1,  §  16.)  In  other  countries  the  laws 
permitted  the  inhabitants  of  the  maritime  provinces  to  reduce  such  as  were 
shipwrecked  on  their  coast  to  servitude.  (Ibid.,  §  17.)  This  barbarous 
custom  prevailed  in  many  countries  of  Europe.  The  practice  of  seizing  the 
goods  of  persons  who  had  been  shipwrecked,  and  of  confiscating  them  as 
the  property  of  the  lord  on  whose  manor  they  were  thrown,  seems  to  have 
been  universal.  (De  Westphalen,  Monum.  inedita  Rer.  Germ.,  vol.  iv. 
p.  907,  etc.,  and  Du  Cange,  voc.  Laganum;  Beehr.,  Rer.  Mecleb.,  lib.  viii. 
p.  512.)  Among  the  ancient  Welsh  three  sorts  of  persons,  a  madman,  a 
stranger,  and  a  leper,  might  be  killed  with  impunity.  (Leges  Hoel  Dda, 
quoted  in  Observat.  on  the  Statutes,  chiefly  the  more  Ancient,  p.  22.)  M. 
de  Lauriere  produces  several  ancient  deeds  which  prove  that  in  different 
provinces  of  France  strangers  became  the  slaves  of  the  lord  on  whose  lands 
they  settled.  (Glossaire  du  Droit  Frangois,  art.  Aubaine,  p.  92.)  Beau- 
manoir  says,  "  That  there  are  several  places  in  France  in  which  if  a  stranger 
fixes  his  residence  for  a  year  and  a  day,  he  becomes  the  slave  of  the  lord  of 
the  manor."  (Coust.  de  Beauv.,  ch.  45,  p.  254.)  As  a  practice  so  con- 
trary to  humanity  could  not  subsist  long,  the  superior  lords  found  it 
necessary  to  rest  satisfied,  instead  of  enslaving  aliens,  with  levying  certain 
annual  taxes  upon  them,  or  imposing  upon  them  some  extraordinary  duties 
or  services.  But  when  any  stranger  died,  he  could  not  convey  his  effects 
by  will ;  and  all  his  real  as  well  as  personal  estate  fell  to  the  king,  or  to 
the  lord  of  the  barony,  to  the  exclusion  of  his  natural  heirs.  This  is  termed 
in  France  droit  d'aubaine.  (PreX  de  Lauriere,  Ordon.,  torn,  i  p.  15  ; 
Brusael,  torn.  ii.  p.  944  ;  Du  Cange,  voc.  Albani ;  Pasquier,  Recherches, 


NOTE  xxix.]        PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  255 

p.  367.)  This  practice  of  confiscating  the  effects  of  strangers  upon  their 
death  was  very  ancient.  It  is  mentioned,  though  very  obscurely,  in  a  law 
of  Charlemagne,  A.D.  813,  Capitul.  Baluz.,  p.  507,  §  5.  Not  only  persons 
who  were  born  in  a  foreign  country  were  subject  to  the  "  droit  d'aubaine," 
but  in  some  countries  such  as  removed  from  one  diocese  to  another,  or 
from  the  lands  of  one  baron  to  another.  (Brussel,  vol.  ii.  pp.  947,  949.) 
It  is  hardly  possible  to  conceive  any  law  more  unfavourable  to  the  inter- 
course between  nations.  Something  similar  to  it,  however,  may  be  found 
in  the  ancient  laws  of  every  kingdom  in  Europe.  With  respect  to  Italy, 
see  Murat.,  Ant.,  vol.  ii.  p.  14.  As  nations  advanced  in  improvement, 
this  practice  was  gradually  abolished.  It  is  no  small  disgrace  to  the  French 
jurisprudence  that  this  barbarous,  inhospitable  custom  should  have  so  long 
remained  among  a  people  so  highly  civilized. 

The  confusion  and  outrage  which  abounded  under  a  feeble  form  of 
government,  incapable  of  framing  or  executing  salutary  laws,  rendered  the 
communication  between  the  different  provinces  of  the  same  kingdom  ex- 
tremely dangerous.  It  appears  from  a  letter  of  Lupus,  abbot  of  Ferrieres, 
in  the  ninth  century,  that  the  highways  were  so  much  infested  by  banditti 
that  it  was  necessary  for  travellers  to  form  themselves  into  companies  or 
caravans,  that  they  might  be  safe  from  the  assaults  of  robbers.  (Bouquet, 
Recueil  des  Hist,  voL  vii.  p.  51ft.)  The  numerous  regulations  published 
by  Charles  the  Bald  in  the  same  century  discover  the  frequency  of  these 
disorders  ;  and  such  acts  of  violence  were  become  so  common  that  by  many 
they  were  hardly  considered  as  criminal.  For  this  reason  the  inferior  judges, 
called  "  centenarii,"  were  required  to  take  an  oath  that  they  would  neither 
commit  any  robbery  themselves,  nor  protect  such  as  were  guilty  of  that 
crime.  (Capitul.,  edit.  Baluz.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  63,  68.)  The  historians  of  the 
ninth  and  tenth  centuries  give  pathetic  descriptions  of  these  disorders. 
Some  remarkable  passages  to  this  purpose  are  collected  by  Mat.  Jo.  Beehr., 
Rer.  Mecleb.,  lib.  viii.  p.  603.  They  became  so  frequent  and  audacious 
that  the  authority  of  the  civil  magistrate  was  unable  to  repress  them. 
The  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  was  called  in  to  aid  it.  Councils  were  held 
with  great  solemnity,  the  bodies  of  the  saints  were  brought  thither,  and,  in 
presence  of  their  sacred  relics,  anathemas  were  denounced  against  robbers 
and  other  violators  of  the  public  peace.  (Bouquet,  Recueil  des  Hist.,  torn. 
x.  pp.  360,  431,  536.)  One  of  these  forms  of  excommunication,  issued 
A.D.  988,  is  still  preserved,  and  is  so  singular,  and  composed  with  eloquence 
of  such  a  peculiar  kind,  that  it  will  not  perhaps  be  deemed  unworthy  of  a 
place  here.  After  the  usual  introduction,  and  mentioning  the  outrage 
which  gave  occasion  to  the  anathema,  it  runs  thus  :  "  Obtenebrescant  oculi 
vestri,  qui  coucupiverunt ;  arescant  manus,  quse  rapuerunt  ;  debilitentui 
oitnia  membra,  quse  adjuverunt.  Semper  laboretis,  nee  requiem  inve- 
niatis,  fructuque  vestri  laboris  privemini.  Formidetis,  et  paveatis,  a 
facie  persequentis  et  non  persequentis  hostis,  ut  tabescendo  deficiatis. 
Sit  portio  vestra  cum  Juda  traditore  Domini,  in  terra  mortis  et  tenebrarum  ; 
donee  corda  vestra  ad  satisfactionem  plenam  convertantur. — Ne  cesseiit 
A  vobis  hse  maledictiones,  scelerum  vestrorum  persecu*  rices,  quanuliu 
permanebitis  in  peccato  pervasionis.  Amen,  Fiat,  Fiat"  Bouquet,  ibid.. 
p.  517. 


256  PBOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.         [NOTE  xxx. 


NOTE  XXX.— Sect  I.  p.  79. 

With  respect  to  the  progress  of  commerce,  which  I  have  described, 
p.  74,  etc.,  it  may  be  observed  that  the  Italian  states  carried  on  some 
commerce  with  the  cities  of  the  Greek  empire  as  early  as  the  age 
of  Charlemagne,  and  imported  into  their  own  country  the  rich  com- 
modities of  the  East.  (Murat.,  Antiq.,  Ital.,  vol.  ii.  p.  882.)  In  the 
tenth  century  the  Venetians  had  opened  a  trade  with  Alexandi la  in  Egypt 
(Ibid.)  The  inhabitants  of  Amalfi  and  Pisa  had  likewise  extended  theil 
trade  to  the  same  ports.  (Murat.,  ib.,  pp.  884,  885.)  The  effects  of  the 
crusades  in  increasing  the  wealth  and  commerce  of  the  Italian  states,  and 
particularly  that  which  they  carried  on  with  the  East,  I  have  explained, 
p.  29  of  this  volume.  They  not  only  imported  the  Indian  commodities 
from  the  East,  but  established  manufactories  of  curious  fabric  in  their 
own  country.  Some  of  these  are  enumerated  by  Muratori  in  his  Dis- 
sertations concerning  the  arts  and  the  weaving  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
(Antiq.  Ital.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  349,  399.)  They  made  great  progress  par- 
ticularly in  the  manufacture  of  silk,  which  had  long  been  peculiar  to 
the  eastern  provinces  of  Asia.  Silk  stuffs  were  of  such  high  price  in 
ancient  Rome  that  only  a  few  persons  of  the  first  rank  were  able  to 
purchase  them.  Under  Aurelian,  A.D.  270,  a  pound  of  silk  was  equal 
in  value  to  a  pound  of  gold.  "  Absit  ut  auro  fila  pensentur.  Libra 
enim  auri  tune  libra  serici  fait"  (Vopisctis  in  Aureliano.)  Justinian, 
in  the  sixth  century,  introduced  the  art  of  rearing  silk-worms  into  Greece, 
which  rendered  the  commodity  somewhat  more  plentiful,  though  still  it 
was  of  such  great  value  as  to  remain  an  article  of  luxury  or  magnificence, 
reserved  only  for  persons  of  the  first  order,  or  for  public  solemnities. 
Roger  I.,  king  of  Sicily,  about  the  year  1130,  carried  off  a  number  of 
artificers  in  the  silk-trade  from  Athens,  and  settling  them  in  Palermo, 
introduced  the  culture  of  silk  into  his  kingdom,  from  which  it  was  com- 
municated to  other  parts  of  Italy.  (Giannon.,  Hist,  of  Naples,  b.  xi.  c.  7.) 
This  seems  to  have  rendered  silk  so  common,  that  about  the  middle 
of  the  fourteenth  century  a  thousand  citizens  of  Genoa  appeared  in  one 
procession  clad  in  silk  robes.  Sugar  is  likewise  a  production  of  the 
East.  Some  plants  of  the  sugar-cane  were  brought  from  Asia  ;  and  the 
first  attempt  to  cultivate  them  in  Sicily  was  made  about  the  middle  of 
the  twelfth  century.  From  thence  they  were  transplanted  into  the 
southern  provinces  of  Spain.  From  Spain  they  were  carried  to  the 
Canary  and  Madeira  Isles,  and  at  length  into  the  New  World.  Ludovico 
Guicciardini,  in  enumerating  the  goods  imported  into  Antwerp  about  the 
year  1500,  mentions  the  sugar  which  they  received  from  Spain  and 
Portugal  as  a  considerable  article.  He  describes  that  sugar  as  the  product 
of  the  Madeira  and  Canary  Islands.  (Descritt  de'  Paesi  Bassi,  pp.  180, 
181.)  The  sugar-cane  was  introduced  into  the  West  Indies  before  that 
time  ;  but  the  cultivation  of  it  was  not  so  improved  or  so  extensive  as 
to  furnish  an  article  of  much  consequence  in  commerce.  In  the  Middle 
Ages,  though  sugar  was  not  raised  in  such  quantities,  or  employed  for  so 
many  purposes  as  to  become  one  of  the  common  necessaries  of  life,  it 


NOTE  xxx.]          PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  257 

appears  to  have  been  a  considerable  article  in  the  commerce  of  the  Italian 
states. 

These  various  commodities  with  which  the  Italians  furnished  the  other 
nations  of  Europe  procured  them  a  favourable  reception  in  every  king- 
dom. They  were  established  in  France  in  the  thirteenth  century  with 
most  extensive  immunities.  They  not  only  obtained  every  indulgence 
favourable  to  their  commerce,  but  personal  rights  and  privileges  were 
granted  to  them  which  the  natives  of  the  kingdom  did  not  enjoy.  (Ordon., 
torn.  iv.  p.  668.)  By  a  special  proviso  they  were  exempted  from  the 
droit  d'aubaine.  (Ibid.,  p.  670.)  As  the  Lombards  (a  name  frequently 
given  to  all  Italian  merchants  in  many  parts  of  Europe)  engrossed  the 
trade  of  every  kingdom  in  which  they  settled,  they  became  masters  of  its 
cash.  Money,  of  course,  was  in  their  hands  not  only  a  sign  of  the  value 
of  other  commodities,  but  became  an  object  of  commerce  itself.  They 
dealt  largely  as  bankers.  In  an  ordinance,  A.D.  1295,  we  ind  them 
styled  mercatores  and  campsores.  They  carried  on  this  as  well  as  other 
branches  of  their  commerce  with  somewhat  of  that  rapacious  spirit  which 
is  natural  to  monopolizers  who  are  not  restrained  by  the  competition  of 
rival  traders.  An  absurd  opinion  which  prevailed  in  the  Middle  Ages 
was,  however,  in  some  measure  the  cause  of  their  exorbitant  demands,  and 
may  be  pleaded  in  apology  for  them.  Trade  cannot  be  carried  on  with 
advantage  unless  the  persons  who  lend  a  sum  of  money  are  allowed  a 
certain  premium  for  the  use  of  it,  as  a  compensation  for  the  risk  which 
they  run  in  permitting  another  to  traffic  with  their  stock.  This  premium 
is  fixed  by  law  in  all  commercial  countries,  and  is  called  the  legal  interest 
of  money.  But  the  fathers  of  the  Church  had  preposterously  applied 
the  prohibitions  of  usury  in  Scripture  to  the  payment  of  legal  interest, 
and  condemned  it  as  a  sin.  The  schoolmen,  misled  by  Aristotle,  whose 
sentiments  they  followed  implicitly,  and  without  examination,  adopted  the 
same  error,  and  enforced  it.  (Blackstone's  Commentaries  on  the  Laws 
t>f  England,  vol.  ii.  p.  455.)  Thus  the  Lombards  found  themselves 
engaged  in  a  traffic  which  was  everywhere  deemed  criminal  and  odious. 
They  were  liable  to  punishment  if  detected.  They  were  not  satisfied, 
therefore,  with  that  moderate  premium  which  they  might  have  claimed  if 
their  trade  had  been  open  and  authorized  by  law.  They  exacted  a  sum 
proportional  to  the  danger  and  infamy  of  a  discovery.  Accordingly,  we 
find  that  it  was  usual  for  them  to  demand  twenty  per  cent,  for  the  use  of 
money  in  the  thirteenth  century.  (Murat.,  Antiq.  Ital.,  vol.  L  p.  893.) 
About  the  beginning  of  that  century  the  countess  of  Flanders  was  obliged 
to  borrow  money  in  order  to  pay  her  husband's  ransom.  She  procured 
the  sum  requisite  either  from  Italian  merchants  or  from  Jews.  The 
lowest  interest  which  she  paid  to  them  was  above  twenty  per  cent.,  and 
some  of  them  exacted  near  thirty.  (Martene  and  Durand.,  Thesaur. 
Anecdotorum,  vol.  i  p.  886.)  In  the  fourteenth  century,  A.D.  1311, 
Philip  IV.  fixed  the  interest  which  might  be  legally  exacted  in  the  fairs 
of  Champagne  at  twenty  per  cent.  (Ordon.,  torn.  i.  p.  484.)  The  interest 
of  money  in  Aragon  was  somewhat  lower.  James  I.,  A.D.  1242,  fixed  it 
by  law  at  eighteen  per  cent.  (Petr.  de  Marca,  Marca,  sive  Limes  Hispan., 
App.  1433.)  As  late  as  the  year  1490,  it  appears  that  the  interest  of 
money  in  Placentia  was  at  the  rate  of  forty  per  cent.  This  is  the  more 

VOL.  I.  • 


PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.          [NOTE  xxx 

extraordinary  because  at  that  time  the  commerce  of  the  Italian  states  waa 
become  considerable.  (Memorie  storiche  de  Piacenza,  torn.  viii.  p.  104, 
Piac.,  1760.)  It  appears  from  Lud.  Guicciardini  that  Charles  V.  had 
fixed  the  rate  of  interest  in  his  dominions  in  the  Low  Countries  at  twelve 
per  cent.,  and  at  the  time  when  he  wrote,  about  the  year  1560,  it  waa 
not  uncommon  to  exact  more  than  that  sum.  He  complains  of  this  as 
exorbitant,  and  points  out  its  bad  effects  both  on  agriculture  and  commerce. 
(Descritt.  de'  Paesi  Bassi,  p.  172.)  This  high  interest  of  money  is  alone 
a  proof  that  the  profits  on  commerce  were  exorbitant,  and  that  it  was  not 
carried  on  to  great  extent.  The  Lombards  were  likewise  established  in 
England  in  the  thirteenth  century,  and  a  considerable  street  in  the  city 
of  London  still  bears  their  name.  They  enjoyed  great  privileges,  and 
carried  on  an  extensive  commerce,  particularly  as  bankers.  (See  Anderson's 
ChronoL  Deduction,  vol.  i.  pp.  137,  160,  204,  231,  where  the  statutes 
or  other  authorities  which  confirm  this  are  quoted.)  But  the  chief  mart 
for  Italian  commodities  was  at  Bruges.  Navigation  was  then  so  imperfect 
that  to  sail  from  any  port  in  the  Baltic,  and  to  return  again  was  a  voyage 
too  great  to  be  performed  in  one  summer.  For  that  reason,  a  magazine 
or  storehouse,  half-way  between  the  commercial  cities  in  the  North  and 
those  in  Italy,  became  necessary.  Bruges  was  pitched  upon  as  the  most 
convenient  station.  That  choice  introduced  vast  wealth  into  the  Low 
Countries.  Bruges  was  at  once  the  staple  for  English  wool,  for  the  woollen 
and  linen  manufactures  of  the  Netherlands,  for  the  naval  stores  and  other 
bulky  commodities  of  the  North,  and  for  the  Indian  commodities  as  well 
as  domestic  productions  imported  by  the  Italian  states.  The  extent  of 
its  commerce  in  Indian  goods  with  Venice  alone  appears  from  one  fact. 
In  the  year  1318  five  Venetian  galeasses  laden  with  Indian  commodities 
arrived  at  Bruges  in  order  to  dispose  of  their  cargoes  at  the  fair.  These 
galeasses  were  vessels  of  very  considerable  burden.  (L.  Guic.,  Descritt. 
de'  Paesi  Bassi,  p.  174.)  Bruges  was  the  greatest  emporium  in  all  Europe. 
Many  proofs  of  this  occur  in  the  historians  and  records  of  the  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  centuries.  But,  instead  of  multiplying  quotations,  I  shall 
refer  my  readers  to  Anderson,  vol.  L  pp.  12,  137,  213,  246,  etc.  The 
nature  of  this  work  prevents  me  from  entering  into  any  more  minute 
detail,  but  there  are  some  detached  facts  which  give  a  high  idea  of  the 
wealth  both  of  the  Flemish  and  Italian  commercial  states.  The  duke  of 
Brabant  contracted  his  daughter  to  the  Black  Prince,  son  of  Edward  III. 
of  England,  A.D.  1339,  and  gave  her  a  portion  which  we  may  reckon  to 
be  of  equal  value  with  three  hundred  thousand  pounds  of  our  present 
money.  (Rymer's  Foedera,  vol.  v.  p.  113.)  John  Galeazzo  Visconti, 
duke  of  Milan,  concluded  a  treaty  of  marriage  between  his  daughter  and 
Lionel,  duke  of  Clarence,  Edward's  third  son,  A.D.  1367,  and  granted  her 
a  portion  equal  to  two  hundred  thousand  pounds  of  our  present  money. 
(Rymer's  Fcedera,  voL  vi  p.  547.)  These  exorbitant  sums,  so  far 
exceeding  what  was  then  granted  by  the  most  powerful  monarchs,  acd 
which  appear  extraordinary  even  in  the  present  age,  when  the  wealth  of 
Europe  is  so  much  increased,  must  have  arisen  from  the  riches  which 
flowed  into  those  countries  from  their  extensive  and  lucrative  commerce. 
The  first  source  of  wealth  to  the  towns  situated  on  the  Baltic  Sea  seems 
to  have  been  the  herring-fishery, — the  shoals  of  herring!?  frequenting  at 


HOTE  xxx.]          PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  259 

that  time  the  coasts  of  Sweden  and  Denmark  in  the  same  manner  as  they 
now  resort  to  the  British  coasts.  The  effects  of  this  fishery  are  thus 
described  by  an  author  of  the  thirteenth  century.  The  Danes,  says  he, 
who  were  formerly  clad  in  the  poor  garb  of  sailors,  are  now  clothed  in 
scarlet,  purple,  and  fine  linen.  For  they  abound  with  wealth  flowing 
from  their  annual  fishery  on  the  coast  of  Schonen ;  so  that  all  nations 
resort  to  them,  bringing  their  gold,  silver,  and  precious  commodities, 
that  they  may  purchase  herrings,  which  the  Divine  bounty  bestows  upon 
them.  Arnoldus  Lubecensis,  ap.  Conring.,  de  Urbib.  German.,  §  87. 

The  Hanseatic  League  is  the  most  powerful  commercial  confederacy 
known  in  history.  Its  origin  towards  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century, 
and  the  objects  of  its  union,  are  described  by  Knipschildt,  Tractatus 
Historico-Politico-Juridicus  de  Juribus  Civitat.  Imper.,  lib.  i.  cap.  4. 
Anderson  has  mentioned  the  chief  facts  with  respect  to  their  commercial 
progress,  the  extent  of  the  privileges  which  they  obtained  in  different 
countries,  their  successful  wars  with  several  monarchs,  as  well  as  the 
spirit  and  zeal  with  which  they  contended  for  those  liberties  and  rights 
without  which  it  is  impossible  to  carry  on  commerce  to  advantage.  The 
vigorous  efforts  of  a  society  of  merchants  attentive  only  to  commercial 
objects  could  not  fail  of  diffusing  new  and  more  liberal  ideas  concerning 
justice  and  order  in  every  country  of  Europe  where  they  settled. 

In  England  the  progress  of  commerce  was  extremely  slow  ;  and  the 
causes  of  this  are  obvious.  During  the  Saxon  Heptarchy,  England,  split 
into  many  petty  kingdoms,  which  were  perpetually  at  variance  with  each 
other,  exposed  to  the  fierce  incursions  of  the  Danes  and  other  Northern 
pirates,  and  sunk  in  barbarity  and  ignorance,  was  in  no  condition  to 
cultivate  commerce,  or  to  pursue  any  system  of  useful  and  salutary 
policy.  When  a  better  prospect  began  to  open,  by  the  union  of  the 
kingdom  under  one  monarch,  the  Norman  Conquest  took  place.  This 
occasioned  such  a  violent  shock,  as  well  as  such  a  sudden  and  total 
revolution  of  property,  that  the  nation  did  not  recover  from  it  during 
several  reigns.  By  the  time  that  the  constitution  began  to  acquire  some 
stability,  and  the  English  had  so  incorporated  with  their  conquerors  as 
to  become  one  people,  the  nation  engaged  with  no  less  ardour  than 
imprudence  in  support  of  the  pretensions  of  their  sovereigns  to  the  crown 
of  France,  and  long  wasted  its  vigour  and  genius  in  its  wild  efforts  to 
conquer  that  kingdom.  When,  by  ill  success  and  repeated  disappoint- 
ments, a  period  was  at  last  put  to  this  fatal  frenzy,  and  the  nation, 
beginning  to  enjoy  some  repose,  had  leisure  to  breathe  and  to  gather  new 
strength,  the  destructive  wars  between  the  houses  of  York  and  Lancaster 
broke  out,  and  involved  the  kingdom  in  the  worst  of  all  calamities.  Thus, 
besides  the  common  obstructions  of  commerce  occasioned  by  the  nature 
of  the  feudal  government,  and  the  state  of  manners  during  the  Middle 
Ages,  its  progress  in  England  was  retarded  by  peculiar  causes.  Such  a 
succession  of  events  adverse  to  the  commercial  spirit  was  sufficient  to  have 
checked  its  growth  although  every  other  circumstance  had  favoured  it. 
The  English  were  accordingly  one  of  the  last  nations  in  Europe  who 
availed  themselves  of  those  commercial  advantages  which  were  natural 
or  peculiar  to  their  country.  Before  the  reign  of  Edward  III.,  all  the 
wool  of  England,  except  a  small  quantity  wrought  into  coarse  cloths  for 

s  2 


260  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.        [NOTE  xxxi. 

home  consumption,  was  sold  to  the  Flemings  or  Lombards,  and  manu- 
factured by  them.  Though  Edward,  A.D.  1326,  began  to  allure  some 
of  the  Flemish  weavers  to  settle  in  England,  it  was  long  before  the 
English  were  capable  of  fabricating  cloth  for  foreign  markets,  and  the 
export  of  unwrought  wool  still  continued  to  be  the  chief  article  of  their 
commerce.  (Anderson,  passim.)  All  foreign  commodities  were  brought 
into  England  by  the  Lombards  or  Hanseatic  merchants.  The  English 
ports  were  frequented  by  ships  both  from  the  North  and  South  of  Europe, 
and  they  tamely  allowed  foreigners  to  reap  all  the  profits  arising  from 
ihe  supply  of  their  wants.  The  first  commercial  treaty  of  England  on 
record  is  that  with  Haquin,  king  of  Norway,  A.D.  1217.  (Anders.,  voL  i. 
p.  108.)  But  the  English  did  not  venture  to  trade  in  their  own  ships 
to  the  Baltic  until  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century.  (Ibid.,  p.  151.) 
It  was  after  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  before  they  sent  any  ship  into  the 
Mediterranean.  (Ibid.,  p.  177.)  Nor  was  it  long  before  this  period 
that  their  vessels  began  to  visit  the  ports  of  Spain  or  Portugal.  But 
though  I  have  pointed  out  the  slow  progress  of  the  English  commerce  as 
a  fact  little  attended  to,  and  yet  meriting  consideration,  the  concourse  of 
foreigners  to  the  ports  of  England,  together  with  the  communication 
among  all  the  different  countries  in  Europe,  which  went  on  increasing 
from  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  is  sufficient  to  justify  all  the 
observations  and  reasonings  in  the  text  concerning  the  influence  of  commerce 
on  the  state  of  manners  and  of  society. 

NOTE  XXXI.— Sect.  III.  p.  144. 

I  have  not  been  able  to  discover  the  precise  manner  in  which  the 
justiza  was  appointed.  Among  the  claims  of  the  junta  or  union  formed 
against  James  I.,  A.D.  1264,  this  was  one  :  that  the  king  should  not 
nominate  any  person  to  be  justiza  without  the  consent  or  approbation  of 
the  ricos  hombres,  or  nobles.  (Zurita,  Anales  de  Aragon,  vol.  i.  p.  180.) 
But  the  king,  in  his  answer  to  their  remonstrance,  asserts  "  that  it  was 
established  by  immemorial  practice,  and  was  conformable  to  the  laws  of 
the  kingdom,  that  the  king,  in  virtue  of  his  royal  prerogative,  should 
name  the  justiza."  (Zurita,  ibid.,  181  ;  Blanca,  656.)  From  another 
passage  in  Zurita,  it  appears  that  while  the  Aragonese  enjoyed  the 
privilege  of  the  union,  i.e.,  the  power  of  confederating  against  their 
sovereign  as  often  as  they  conceived  that  he  had  violated  any  of  their 
rights  and  immunities,  the  justiza  was  not  only  nominated  by  the  king, 
but  held  his  office  during  the  king's  pleasure.  Nor  was  this  practice 
attended  with  any  bad  effects,  as  the  privilege  of  the  union  was  a  sufficient 
and  effectual  check  to  any  abuse  of  the  royal  prerogative.  But  when  the 
privilege  of  the  union  was  abolished  as  dangerous  to  the  order  and  peace 
of  society,  it  was  agreed  that  the  justiza  should  continue  in  office  during 
life.  Several  kings,  however,  attempted  to  remove  justizas  who  were 
obnoxious  to  them,  and  they  sometimes  succeeded  in  the  attempt.  In 
order  to  guard  against  this  encroachment,  which  would  have  destroyed  the 
intention  of  the  institution,  and  have  rendered  the  justiza  the  dependant 
and  tool  of  the  crown,  instead  of  the  guardian  of  the  people,  a  law  waa 
enacted  in  the  cortes,  A.D.  1442,  ordaining  that  the  justiza  should  continue 


NOTE  xxxi.]         PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  2G1 

in  office  during  life,  and  should  not  be  removed  from  it  unless  by  the 
authority  of  the  cortes.  (Fueros  y  Observancias  del  Reyno  de  Aragon, 
lib.  i.  p.  22.)  By  former  laws,  the  person  of  the  justiza  had  been  declared 
sacred,  and  he  was  responsible  only  to  the  cortes.  (Ibid.,  p.  15,  b.)  Zurita 
and  Blanca,  who  both  published  their  histories  while  the  justiza  of  Aragon 
retained  the  full  exercise  of  his  privileges  and  jurisdiction,  have  neglected 
to  explain  several  circumstances  with  regard  to  the  office  of  that  respectable 
magistrate,  because  they  addressed  their  works  to  their  countrymen,  who 
were  well  acquainted  with  every  particular  concerning  the  functions  of  a 
judge  to  whom  they  looked  up  as  to  the  guardian  of  their  liberties.  It  is 
vain  to  consult  the  later  historians  of  Spain  about  any  point  with  respect 
to  which  the  excellent  historians  whom  I  have  named  are  silent.  The 
ancient  constitution  of  their  country  was  overturned,  and  despotism 
established  on  the  ruin  of  its  liberties,  when  the  writers  of  this  and  the 
preceding  century  composed  their  histories,  and  on  that  account  they  had 
little  curiosity  to  know  the  nature  of  those  institutions  to  which  their 
ancestors  owed  the  enjoyment  of  freedom,  or  they  were  afraid  to  describe 
them  with  much  accuracy.  The  spirit  with  which  Mariana,  his  continuator 
Miniana,  and  Ferreras,  write  their  histories,  is  very  different  from  that  of 
the  two  historians  of  Aragon  from  whom  I  have  taken  my  account  of  the 
constitution  of  that  kingdom. 

Two  circumstances  concerning  the  justiza,  besides  those  which  I  have 
mentioned  in  the  text,  are  worthy  of  observation.  1.  None  of  the  ricos 
hombres,  or  noblemen  of  the  first  order,  could  be  appointed  justiza.  He 
was  taken  out  of  the  second  class  of  cavalleros,  who  seem  to  have  been 
nearly  of  the  same  condition  or  rank  with  gentlemen  or  commoners  in 
Great  Britain.  (Fueros  y  Observancias  del  Reyno,  etc.  lib.  i.  p.  21,  b.) 
The  reason  was,  by  the  laws  of  Aragon  the  ricos  hombres  were  not  subject 
to  capital  punishment ;  but,  as  it  was  necessary  for  the  security  of  liberty 
that  the  justiza  should  be  accountable  for  the  manner  in  which  he  executed 
the  high  trust  reposed  in  him,  it  was  a  powerful  restraint  upon  him  to  know 
that  he  was  liable  to  be  punished  capitally.  (Blanca,  pp.  657,  756 ; 
Zurita,  torn.  ii.  p.  229  ;  Fueros  y  Observancias,  lib.  ix.  pp.  182,  b.  183.) 
It  appears,  too,  from  many  passages  in  Zurita  that  the  justiza  was 
appointed  to  check  the  domineering  and  oppressive  spirit  of  the  nobles,  as 
well  as  to  set  bounds  to  the  power  of  the  monarch,  and  therefore  he  was 
chosen  from  an  order  of  citizens  equally  interested  in  opposing  both. 

2.  A  magistrate  possessed  of  such  vast  powers  as  the  justiza  might  have 
exercised  them  in  a  manner  pernicious  to  the  state  if  he  himself  had  been 
subject  to  no  control  A  constitutional  remedy  was  on  that  account 
provided  against  this  danger.  Seventeen  persons  were  chosen  by  lot  in 
each  meeting  of  the  cortes.  These  formed  a  tribunal  called  the  court  of 
inquisition  into  the  office  of  justiza.  This  court  met  at  three  stated  terms 
in  each  year.  Every  person  had  liberty  of  complaining  to  it  of  any 
iniquity  or  neglect  of  duty  in  the  justiza,  or  in  the  inferior  judges  who 
acted  in  his  name.  The  justiza  and  his  deputies  were  called  to  answer 
for  their  conduct.  The  members  of  the  court  passed  sentence  by  ballot 
They  might  punish  by  degradation,  confiscation  of  goods,  or  even  with 
death.  The  law  which  erected  this  court  and  regulated  the  form  of  its 
procedure  was  enacted  A.D.  1461.  (Zurita,  Anales,  iv.  102  ;  Blanca, 


262  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.       I  NOTE 

Comment  Rer.  Aragon.,  770.)  Previous  to  this  period,  inquiry  was 
made  into  the  conduct  of  the  justiza,  though  not  with  the  same 
formality.  He  was,  from  the  first  institution  of  the  office,  subject  to  the 
review  of  the  cortes.  The  constant  dread  of  such  an  impartial  and  severe 
inquiry  into  his  behaviour  was  a  powerful  motive  to  the  vigilant  and 
faithful  discharge  of  his  duty.  A  remarkable  instance  of  the  authority 
of  the  justiza  when  opposed  to  that  of  the  king  occurs  in  the  year  1386 
By  the  constitution  of  Aragon,  the  eldest  son  or  heir-apparent  of  the 
crown  possessed  considerable  power  and  jurisdiction  in  the  kingdom. 
(Fueros  y  Observancias  del  Reyno  de  Aragon,  lib.  i.  p.  16.)  Peter  IV., 
instigated  by  a  second  wife,  attempted  to  deprive  his  son  of  this,  and 
enjoined  his  subjects  to  yield  him  no  obedience.  The  prince  immediately 
applied  to  the  justiza,  "  the  safeguard  and  defence,"  says  Zurita,  "  against 
all  violence  and  oppression."  The  justiza  granted  him  the  firma  de  derecho, 
the  effect  of  which  was  that  upon  his  giving  surety  to  appear  in  judgment 
he  could  not  be  deprived  of  any  immunity  or  privilege  which  he  possessed, 
but  in  consequence  of  a  legal  trial  before  the  justiza  and  of  a  sentence 
pronounced  by  him.  This  was  published  throughout  the  kingdom,  and, 
notwithstanding  the  proclamation  in  contradiction  to  this  which  had  been 
issued  by  the  king,  the  prince  continued  in  the  exercise  of  all  his  rights, 
and  his  authority  was  universally  recognised.  Zurita,  Anales  de  Aragon, 
torn.  iL  p.  385. 

NOTE  XXXII.— Sect  III.  p.  145. 

I  have  been  induced,  by  the  concurring  testimony  of  many  respectable 
authors,  to  mention  this  as  the  constitutional  form  of  the  oath  of  allegiance 
which  the  Aragonese  took  to  their  sovereigns.  I  must  acknowledge, 
however,  that  I  have  not  found  this  singular  oath  in  any  Spanish  author 
whom  I  have  had  an  opportunity  of  consulting.  It  is  mentioned  neither 
by  Zurita,  nor  Blanca,  nor  Argensola,  nor  Sayas,  who  were  all  historio- 
graphers appointed  by  the  cortes  of  Aragon  to  record  the  transactions  of 
the  kingdom.  All  these  writers  possess  a  merit  which  is  very  rare  among 
historians.  They  are  extremely  accurate  in  tracing  the  progress  of  the 
laws  and  constitution  of  their  country.  Their  silence  with  respect  to  this 
creates  some  suspicion  concerning  the  genuineness  of  the  oath.  But  as  it 
is  mentioned  by  so  many  authors,  who  produce  the  ancient  Spanish  words 
in  which  it  is  expressed,  it  is  probable  that  they  have  taken  it  from  some 
writer  of  credit  whose  works  have  not  fallen  into  my  hands.  The  spirit 
of  the  oath  is  perfectly  agreeable  to  the  genius  of  the  Aragonese  corstitu- 
tion.  Since  the  publication  of  the  first  edition,  the  learned  M.  Totze, 
Professor  of  History  at  Batzow,  in  the  duchy  of  Mecklenburg,  has  been  so 
good  as  to  point  out  to  me  a  Spanish  author  of  great  authority  who  has 
published  the  words  of  this  oath.  It  is  Antonio  Perez,  a  native  of 
Aragon,  secretary  to  Philip  II.  The  words  of  the  oath  are,  "  Nos  que 
valemos  tanto  como  vos,  os  hazemos  nuestro  rey  y  senor,  con  tal  que 
nos  guardeys  nuestros  fueros  y  libertades,  y  si  No,  No."  Las  Obras  y 
Relaciones  de  Ant  Perez,  8vo,  por  Juan  de  la  Planche,  1631,  p.  143. 

The  privilege  of  union  which  I  have  mentioned  in  the  preceding  note 
ami  alluded  to  in  the  text  is  indeed  one  of  the  most  singular  which  could 


WOTE  xxxii.]        PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  263 

take  place  in  a  regular  government,  and  the  oath  that  I  have  quoted  ex- 
presses nothing  more  than  this  constitutional  privilege  entitled  the 
Aragonese  to  perform.  If  the  king  or  his  ministers  violated  any  of  the 
laws  or  immunities  of  the  Aragonese,  and  did  not  grant  immediate  redress 
in  consequence  of  their  representations  and  remonstrances,  the  nobles  of 
the  first  rank,  or  ricos  hombres  de  natura,  y  de  mesnada,  the  equestrian 
order,  or  the  nobility  of  the  second  class,  called  hidalgos  y  infanciones, 
together  with  the  magistrates  of  cities,  might,  either  in  the  cortes  or  in  a 
voluntary  assembly,  join  in  union,  and,  binding  themselves  by  mutual 
oaths  and  the  exchange  of  hostages  to  be  faithful  to  each  other,  they  might 
require  the  king,  in  the  name  and  by  the  authority  of  this  body  corporate, 
to  grant  them  redress.  If  the  king  refused  to  comply  with  their  request, 
or  took  arms  in  order  to  oppose  them,  they  might,  in  virtue  of  the  privilege 
of  union,  instantly  withdraw  their  allegiance  from  the  king,  refuse  to  ac- 
knowledge him  as  their  sovereign,  and  proceed  to  elect  another  monarch ; 
nor  did  they  incur  any  guilt  or  become  liable  to  any  prosecution  on  that 
account.  (Blanca,  Com.  Rer.  Arag.,  661,  669.)  This  union  did  not  re- 
semble the  confederacies  in  other  feudal  kingdoms.  It  was  a  constitutional 
association,  in  which  legal  privileges  were  vested,  which  issued  its  man- 
dates under  a  common  seal,  and  proceeded  in  all  its  operations  by  regular 
and  ascertained  forms.  This  dangerous  right  was  not  only  claimed,  but 
exercised.  In  the  year  1287  the  Aragonese  formed  a  union  in  opposition 
to  Alfonso  III.,  and  obliged  that  king  not  only  to  comply  with  their  de- 
mands, but  to  ratify  a  privilege  so  fatal  to  the  power  of  the  crown. 
(Zurita,  Anales,  torn.  i.  p.  322.)  In  the  year  1347  a  union  was  formed 
against  Peter  IV.  with  equal  success,  and  a  new  ratification  of  the  privilege 
was  extorted.  (Zurita,  torn.  ii.  p.  202.)  But  soon  after,  the  king  having 
defeated  the  leaders  of  the  union  in  battle,  the  privilege  of  union  was 
finally  abrogated  in  the  cortes,  and  all  the  laws  or  records  which  contained 
any  confirmation  of  it  were  cancelled  or  destroyed.  The  king,  in  presence 
of  the  cortes,  called  for  the  act  whereby  he  had  ratified  the  union,  and, 
having  wounded  his  hand  with  his  poniard,  he  held  it  above  the  record. 
"  That  privilege,"  says  he,  "  which  has  been  so  fatal  to  the  kingdom,  and 
so  injurious  to  royalty,  should  be  effaced  with  the  blood  of  a  king." 
(Zurita,  torn.  ii.  p.  229.)  The  law  abolishing  the  union  is  published, 
Fueros  y  Observancias,  lib.  ix.  p.  1 78.  "From  that  period  the  justiza  be- 
came the  constitutional  guardian  of  public  liberty,  and  his  power  and  juris- 
diction occasioned  none  of  those  violent  convulsions  which  the  tumultuary 
privilege  of  the  union  was  apt  to  produce.  The  constitution  of  Aragon, 
however,  still  remained  extremely  free.  One  source  of  this  liberty  arose 
from  the  early  admission  of  the  representatives  of  cities  into  the  cortes.  It 
seems  probable  from  Zurita  that  burgesses  were  constituent  members  of 
the  cortes  from  its  first  institution.  He  mentions  a  meeting  of  cortes, 
A.D.  1133,  in  which  the  procuradores  de  las  ciudades  y  villas  were  present. 
(Tom.  i.  p.  51.)  This  is  the  constitutional  language  in  which  their  presence 
is  declared  in  the  cortes,  after  the  journals  of  that  court  were  regularly 
kept.  It  is  probable  that  an  historian  so  accurate  as  Zurita  would  not 
have  used  these  words  if  he  had  not  taken  them  from  some  authentic  record. 
It  was  more  than  a  century  after  this  period  before  the  representatives  of 
cities  formed  a  constituent  part  in  the  supreme  assemblies  of  the  other 


264  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.       [NOTE  xxxii. 

European  nations.  The  free  spirit  of  the  Aragonese  government  is  con- 
spicuous in  many  particulars.  The  cortes  not  only  opposed  the  attempts 
of  their  kings  to  increase  their  revenue  or  to  extend  their  prerogative,  but 
they  claimed  rights  and  exercised  powers  which  will  appear  extraordinary 
even  in  a  country  accustomed  to  the  enjoyment  of  liberty.  In  the  year 
1286  the  cortes  claimed  the  privilege  of  naming  the  members  of  the  king's 
council  and  the  officers  of  his  household,  and  they  seem  to  have  obtained 
it  for  some  time.  (Zurita,  torn.  i.  pp.  303,  307.)  It  was  the  privilege 
of  the  cortes  to  name  the  officers  who  commanded  the  troops  raised  by 
their  authority.  This  seems  to  be  evident  from  a  passage  in  Zurita. 
When  the  cortes,  in  the  year  1503,  raised  a  body  of  troops  to  be  em- 
ployed in  Italy,  it  passed  an  act  empowering  the  king  to  name  the 
officers  who  should  command  them  (Zurita,  torn.  v.  p.  274)  ;  which 
plainly  implies  that  without  this  warrant  it  did  not  belong  to  him  in 
virtue  of  his  prerogative.  In  the  Fueros  y  Observancias  del  Reyno  de 
Aragon,  two  general  declarations  of  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the 
Aragonese  are  published, — the  one  in  the  reign  of  Pedro  I.,  A.D.  1283, 
and  the  other  in  that  of  James  II.,  A.D.  1325.  They  are  of  such  a 
length  that  I  cannot  insert  them ;  but  it  is  evident  from  these  that  not 
only  the  privileges  of  the  nobility,  but  the  rights  of  the  people,  personal 
as  well  as  political,  were  at  that  period  more  extensive  and  better  under- 
stood than  in  any  kingdom  in  Europe.  (Lib.  i.  pp.  7,  9.)  The  oath  by 
which  the  king  bound  himself  to  observe  those  rights  and  liberties  of  the 
people  was  very  solemn.  (Ibid.,  p.  14,  b,  and  p.  15.)  The  cortes  of 
Aragon  discovered  riot  only  the  jealousy  and  vigilance  which  are  peculiar 
to  free  states,  in  guarding  the  essential  parts  of  the  constitution,  but  they 
were  scrupulously  attentive  to  observe  the  most  minute  forms  and  cere- 
monies to  which  they  were  accustomed.  According  to  the  established  laws 
and  customs  of  Aragon,  no  foreigner  had  liberty  to  enter  the  hall  in  which 
the  cortes  assembled.  Ferdinand,  in  the  year  1481,  appointed  his  queen, 
Isabella,  regent  of  the  kingdom  while  he  was  absent  during  the  course  of 
the  campaign.  The  law  required  that  a  regent  should  take  the  oath  of 
fidelity  in  presence  of  the  cortes  ;  but,  as  Isabella  was  a  foreigner,  before 
she  could  be  admitted  the  cortes  thought  it  necessary  to  pass  an  act  autho- 
rizing the  serjeant-porter  to  open  the  door  of  the  hall  and  to  allow  her  to 
enter  :  "so  attentive  were  they,"  says  Zurita,  "  to  observe  their  laws  and 
forms,  even  such  as  may  seem  the  most  minute."  Tom.  iv.  p.  313. 

The  Aragonese  were  no  less  solicitous  to  secure  the  personal  rights  of 
individuals  than  to  maintain  the  freedom  of  the  constitution ;  and  the 
spirit  of  their  statutes  with  respect  to  both  was  equally  liberal.  Two  facts 
relative  to  this  matter  merit  observation.  By  an  express  statute  in  the 
year  1335  it  was  declared  to  be  unlawful  to  put  any  native  Aragonese  to 
the  torture.  If  he  could  not  be  convicted  by  the  testimony  of  witnesses, 
he  was  instantly  absolved.  (Zurita,  torn.  ii.  p.  66.)  Zurita  records  the 
regulation  with  the  satisfaction  natural  to  an  historian  when  he  contem- 
plates the  humanity  of  his  countrymen.  He  compares  the  laws  of  Aragon 
to  those  of  Rome,  as  both  exempted  citizens  and  freemen  from  such  igno- 
minious and  cruel  treatment  and  had  recourse  to  it  only  in.  the  trial  of 
slaves.  Zurita  had  reason  to  bestow  such  an  encomium  on  the  laws  of 
his  country.  Torture  was  at  that  time  permitted  by  the  laws  of  every 


kcxns  xxxm.]      PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  265 

other  nation  in  Europe.  Even  in  England,  from  which  the  mild  spirit 
of  legislation  has  long  banished  it,  torture  was  not  at  that  time  unknown. 
Observations  on  the  Statutes,  chiefly  the  more  Ancient,  etc.,  p.  66. 

The  other  fact  shows  that  the  same  spirit  which  influenced  the  legisla- 
ture prevailed  among  the  people.  In  the  year  1485  the  religious  steal  of 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  prompted  them  to  introduce  the  Inquisition  into 
Aragon.  Though  the  Aragonese  were  no  less  superstitiously  attached  than 
the  other  Spaniards  to  the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  and  no  less  desirous  to 
root  out  the  seeds  of  error  and  of  heresy  which  the  Jews  and  Moors  had 
scattered,  yet  they  took  arms  against  the  inquisitors,  murdered  the  chief 
inquisitor,  and  long  opposed  the  establishment  of  that  tribunal.  The 
reason  which  they  gave  for  their  conduct  was,  that  the  mode  of  trial  in  the 
Inquisition  was  inconsistent  with  liberty.  The  criminal  was  not  confronted 
with  the  witnesses,  he  was  not  acquainted  with  what  they  deposed  against 
him,  he  was  subjected  to  torture,  and  the  goods  of  persons  condemned  were 
confiscated.  Zurita,  Anales,  torn.  iv.  p.  341. 

The  form  of  government  in  the  kingdom  of  Valencia  and  principality 
of  Catalonia,  which  were  annexed  to  the  crown  of  Aragon,  was  likewise 
extremely  favourable  to  liberty.  The  Valencians  enjoyed  the  privilege  of 
union  in  the  same  manner  with  the  Aragonese.  But  they  had  no  magis- 
trate resembling  the  justiza.  The  Catalonians  were  no  less  jealous  of  their 
liberties  than  the  two  other  nations,  and  no  less  bold  in  asserting  them. 
But  it  is  not  necessary  for  illustrating  the  following  history  to  enter  into 
any  further  detail  concerning  the  peculiarities  in  the  constitution  of  these 
kingdoms. 

NOTE  XXXIII.— Sect.  III.  p.  146. 

I  have  searched  in  vain  among  the  historians  of  Castile  for  such  infor- 
mation as  might  enable  me  to  trace  the  progress  of  laws  and  government 
in  Castile,  or  to  explain  the  nature  of  the  constitution  with  the  same  degree 
of  accuracy  wherewith  I  have  described  the  political  state  of  Aragon.  It 
is  manifest,  not  only  from  the  historians  of  Castile,  but  from  its  ancient 
laws,  particularly  the  Fuero  Juzgo,  that  its  monarchs  were  originally 
elective.  (Ley es,  2,  5,  8.)  They  were  chosen  by  the  bishops,  the  nobility, 
and  the  people.  (Ibid.)  It  appears  from  the  same  venerable  code  of  laws 
that  the  prerogative  of  the  Castilian  monarchs  was  extremely  limited. 
Villaldiego,  in  his  commentary  on  the  Fuero  Juzgo,  produces  many  facts 
and  authorities  in  confirmation  of  both  these  particulars.  Dr.  Geddes,  who 
was  well  acquainted  with  Spanish  literature,  complains  that  he  could  find 
no  author  who  gave  a  distinct  account  of  the  cortes  or  supreme  assembly 
of  the  nation,  or  who  described  the  manner  in  which  it  was  held,  or  men- 
tioned the  precise  number  of  members  who  had  a  right  to  sit  in  it  He 
produces,  however,  from  Gil  Gonzales  d'Avila,  who  published  a  history  of 
Henry  II.,  the  writ  of  summons  to  the  town  of  Abula,  requiring  it  to 
choose  representatives  to  appear  in  the  cortes  which  he  called  to  meet 
A.D.  1390.  From  this  we  learn  that  prelates,  dukes,  marquises,  the 
masters  of  the  three  military  orders,  condes,  and  ricos  hombres,  were  re- 
quired to  attend.  These  composed  the  bodies  of  ecclesiastics  and  nobles, 
which  formed  two  members  of  the  legislature.  The  :ities  which  sent 


266  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.        [NOTE  xxxv. 

members  to  that  meeting  of  the  cortes  were  forty-eight.  The  number  of 
representatives  (for  the  cities  had  right  to  choose  more  or  fewer  according 
to  their  respective  dignity)  amounted  to  a  hundred  and  twenty-five. 
(Geddes,  Miscellaneous  Tracts,  vol.  L  p.  331.)  Zurita,  having  occasion 
to  mention  the  cortes  which  Ferdinand  held  at  Toro,  A.D.  1505,  in  order 
to  secure  for  himself  the  government  of  Castile  after  the  death  of  Isabella, 
records,  with  his  usual  accuracy,  the  names  of  the  members  present,  and 
of  the  cities  which  they  represented.  From  that  list  it  appears  that  only 
eighteen  cities  had  deputies  in  this  assembly.  (Anales  de  Aragon,  torn.  vi. 
p.  3.)  What  was  the  occasion  of  this  great  difference  in  the  number  of 
cities  represented  in  these  two  meetings  of  the  cortes,  I  am  unable  to 
explain. 

NOTE  XXXIV. — Sect.  III.  p.  148. 

A  great  part  of  the  territory  in  Spain  was  engrossed  by  the  nobility. 
L.  Marinseus  Siculus,  who  composed  his  treatise  De  Rebus  Hispaniae  during 
the  reign  of  Charles  V.,  gives  a  catalogue  of  the  Spanish  nobility,  together 
with  the  yearly  rent  of  their  estates.  According  to  his  account,  which  he 
affirms  was  as  accurate  as  the  nature  of  the  subject  would  admit,  the  sum 
total  of  the  annual  revenue  of  their  lands  amounted  to  one  million  four 
hundred  and  eighty-two  thousand  ducats.  If  we  make  allowance  for  the 
great  difference  in  the  value  of  money  in  the  fifteenth  century  from  that 
which  it  now  bears,  and  consider  that  the  catalogue  of  Marinaeus  includes 
only  the  titulados,  or  nobility  whose  families  were  distinguished  by  some 
honorary  title,  their  wealth  must  appear  very  great.  (L.  Marinaeus,  ap. 
Schott.,  Script.  Hispan.,  vol.  i.  p.  323.)  The  commons  of  Castile,  in  their 
contests  with  the  crown,  which  I  shall  hereafter  relate,  complain  of  the 
extensive  property  of  the  nobility  as  extremely  pernicious  to  the  kingdom. 
In  one  of  their  manifestoes  they  assert  that  from  Valladolid  to  St.  Jago  in 
Galicia,  which  was  a  hundred  leagues,  the  crown  did  not  possess  more  than 
three  villages.  All  the  rest  belonged  to  the  nobility,  and  could  be  sub- 
jected to  no  public  burden.  (Sandoval,  Vida  del  Emperador  Carlos  V., 
vol.  i.  p.  422.)  It  appears  from  the  testimony  of  authors  quoted  by  Bova- 
dilla  that  these  extensive  possessions  were  bestowed  upon  the  ricos  hombres, 
hidalgos,  and  cavalleros  by  the  kings  of  Castile  in  reward  for  the  assistance 
which  they  had  received  from  them  in  expelling  the  Moors.  They  like- 
wise obtained  by  the  same  means  a  considerable  influence  in  the  cities, 
many  of  which  anciently  depended  upon  the  nobility.  Politica  para 
Corregidores,  Amb.,  1750,  foL,  vol.  i.  pp.  440,  442. 

Nora  XXXV.— Sect.  III.  p.  150. 

I  have  been  able  to  discover  nothing  certain,  as  I  observed,  Note  XVIII., 
•with  respect  to  the  origin  of  communities  or  free  cities  in  Spain.  It  is 
probable  that  as  soon  as  the  considerable  towns  were  recovered  from  the 
Moors  the  inhabitants  who  fixed  their  residence  in  them,  being  persons  of 
distinction  and  credit,  had  all  the  privilege  of  municipal  government  and 
jurisdiction  conferred  upon  them.  Many  striking  proofs  occur  of  the 
Bplendoxir,  wealth,  and  power  of  the  Spanish  cities.  Hieronymufi  Paulua 


KOTE  xxxvi.]      PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  267 

wrote  a  description  of  Barcelona  in  the  year  1491,  and  compares  the 
dimensions  of  the  town  to  that  of  Naples,  and  the  elegance  of  its  buildings, 
the  variety  of  its  manufactures,  and  the  extent  of  its  commerce,  to  Flo- 
rence. (Hieron.  Paulus,  ap.  Schott.,  Script.  Hisp.,  vol.  iL  p.  844.) 
Marinseus  describes  Toledo  as  a  large  and  populous  city.  A  great  number 
of  its  inhabitants  were  persons  of  quality  and  of  illustrious  rank.  Its 
commerce  was  great.  It  carried  on  with  great  activity  and  success  the 
manufactures  of  silk  and  wool ;  and  the  number  of  inhabitants  employed 
in  these  two  branches  of  trade  amounted  nearly  to  ten  thousand.  (Marin., 
ubi  supra,  p.  308.)  "  I  know  no  city,"  says  he,  "  that  I  would  prefer  to 
Valladolid  for  elegance  and  splendour."  (Ibid.,  p.  312.)  We  may  form 
some  estimate  of  its  populousness  from  the  following  circumstances.  The 
citizens  having  taken  arms  in  the  year  1516  in  order  to  oppose  a  measure 
concerted  by  Cardinal  Ximenes,  they  mustered  in  the  city,  and  in  the 
territory  which  belonged  to  it,  thirty-thousand  fighting-men.  (Sandoval, 
Vida  del  Emper.  Carlos  V.,  torn,  i  p.  81.)  The  manufactures  carried  on 
in  the  towns  of  Spain  were  not  intended  merely  for  home  consumption  ; 
they  were  exported  to  foreign  countries,  and  their  commerce  was  a  consider- 
able source  of  wealth  to  the  inhabitants.  The  maritime  laws  of  Barcelona 
are  the  foundation  of  mercantile  jurisprudence  in  modern  times,  as  the 
Leges  Rhodiae  were  among  the  ancients.  All  the  commercial  states  in 
Italy  adopted  these  laws  and  regulated  their  trade  according  to  them. 
(Sandi,  Storia  civile  Veneziana,  vol.  ii.  p.  865.)  It  appears  from  several 
ordinances  of  the  kings  of  France  that  the  merchants  of  Aragon  and  Castile 
were  received  on  the  same  footing  and  admitted  to  the  same  privileges  with 
those  of  Italy.  (Ordonnances  des  Roys,  etc.,  torn,  ii.  p.  135,  torn.  iii. 
pp.  166,  504,  635.)  Cities  in  such  a  flourishing  state  became  a  respect- 
able part  of  the  society,  and  were  entitled  to  a  considerable  share  in  the 
legislature.  The  magistrates  of  Barcelona  aspired  to  the  highest  honour  a 
Spanish  subject  can  enjoy,  that  of  being  covered  in  the  presence  of  their 
sovereign,  and  of  being  treated  as  grandees  of  the  kingdom.  Origen  de  la 
Dignidad  de  Grande  de  Castilla,  por  Don  Alonso  Carillo,  Madrid,  1657, 
p.  ia 

NOTE  XXXVL— Sect  IIL  p.  162. 

The  military  order  of  St.  Jago,  the  most  honourable  and  opulent  of  the 
three  Spanish  orders,  was  instituted  about  the  year  1170.  The  bull  of 
confirmation  by  Alexander  III.  is  dated  A.D.  1176.  At  that  time  a  con- 
siderable part  of  Spain  still  remained  under  subjection  to  the  Moors,  and 
the  whole  country  was  much  exposed  to  depredations  not  only  of  the 
enemy,  but  of  banditti.  It  is  no  wonder,  then,  that  an  institution  the 
object  of  which  was  to  oppose  the  enemies  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  to 
restrain  and  punish  those  who  disturbed  the  public  peace,  should  be  ex- 
tremely popular  and  meet  with  general  encouragement  The  wealth  and 
power  of  the  order  became  so  great  that,  according  to  one  historian,  the 
Grand  Master  of  St.  Jago  was  the  person  in  Spain  of  greatest  power  and 
dignity  next  to  the  king.  (JSL  Anton.  Nebrissensis,  ap.  Schott,  Script. 
Hisp.,  i.  812.)  Another  historian  observes  that  the  order  possessed  every 
thing  in  Castile  that  a  king  would  most  desire  to  obtain.  (Zurita,  Anales, 


268  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.      [NOTE  xxxvi. 

v.  22.)  The  knights  took  the  vows  of  obedience,  of  poverty,  and  of  con- 
jugal chastity.  By  the  former  they  were  bound  implicitly  to  obey  the 
commands  of  their  grand  master.  The  order  could  bring  into  the  field  a 
thousand  men-at-arms.  (Ml.  Ant.  Nebriss.,  p.  813.)  If,  as  we  have 
reason  to  believe,  these  men-at-arms  were  accompanied  as  was  usual  at  th.it 
age,  this  was  a  formidable  body  of  cavalry.  There  belonged  to  this  order 
eighty-four  commanderies,  and  two  hundred  priories  and  other  benefices. 
(Dissertations  sur  la  Che  Valerie,  par  Hon.  de  Ste.  Marie,  p.  262.)  It  is 
obvious  how  formidable  to  his  sovereign  the  command  of  these  troops,  the 
administration  of  such  revenues,  and  the  disposal  of  so  many  offices  must 
have  rendered  a  subject.  The  other  two  orders,  though  inferior  to  that  of 
St.  Jago  in  power  and  wealth,  were  nevertheless  very  considerable  frater- 
nities. When  the  conquest  of  Granada  deprived  the  knights  of  St.  Jago 
of  those  enemies  against  whom  their  zeal  was  originally  directed,  supersti- 
tion found  out  a  new  object  in  defence  of  which  they  engaged  to  employ 
their  courage.  To  their  usual  oath  they  added  the  following  clause  :  "  We 
do  swear  to  believe,  to  maintain,  and  to  contend  in  public  and  private, 
that  the  Virgin  Mary,  the  Mother  of  God,  our  Lady,  was  conceived 
without  the  stain  of  original  sin."  This  addition  was  made  about  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  (Honord  de  Ste.  Marie,  Dissertations, 
etc.,  p.  263.)  Nor  is  such  a  singular  engagement  peculiar  to  the  order 
of  St.  Jago.  The  members  of  the  second  military  order  in  Spain,  that  of 
Calatrava,  equally  zealous  to  employ  their  prowess  in  defence  of  the  honours 
of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  have  likewise  professed  themselves  her  true  knights. 
Their  vow,  conceived  in  terms  more  theologically  accurate  than  that  of 
St.  Jago,  may  afford  some  amusement  to  an  English  reader.  "  I  vow  to 
God,  to  the  grand  master,  and  to  you  who  here  represent  his  person,  that 
now,  and  forever,  I  will  maintain  and  contend  that  the  Virgin  Mary, 
Mother  of  God,  our  Lady,  was  conceived  without  original  sin,  and  never 
incurred  the  pollution  of  it ;  but  that  in  the  moment  of  her  happy  concep- 
tion, and  of  the  union  of  her  soul  with  her  body,  the  Divine  grace  pre- 
vented and  preserved  her  from  original  guilt,  by  the  merits  of  the  passion 
and  death  of  Christ,  our  Redeemer,  her  future  Son,  foreseen  in  the  Divine 
counsel,  by  which  she  was  truly  redeemed,  and  by  a  more  noble  kind  of 
redemption  than  any  of  the  children  of  Adam.  In  the  belief  of  this  truth, 
and  in  maintaining  the  honour  of  the  most  Holy  Virgin,  through  the 
strength  of  Almighty  God,  I  will  live  and  will  die."  (Definiciones  de  la 
Orden  de  Calatrava,  conforme  al  Capitulo  General  en  1652,  fol.,  Madr., 
1748,  p.  153.)  Though  the  Church  of  Rome  hath  prudently  avoided  to 
give  its  sanction  to  the  doctrine  of  the  immaculate  conception,  and  the  two 
great  monastic  orders  of  St.  Dominic  and  St.  Francis  have  espoused  oppo- 
site opinions  concerning  it,  the  Spaniards  are  such  ardent  champions  for 
the  honour  of  the  Virgin  that  when  the  present  king  of  Spain  instituted  a 
new  military  order  in  the  year  1771,  in  commemoration  of  the  birth  of  his 
grandson,  he  put  it  under  the  immediate  protection  of  the  most  Holy  Mary 
in  the  mystery  of  her  immaculate  conception.  (Constituciones  de  la  real 
y  distinguida  Orden  Espafiola  de  Carlos  III.,  p.  7.)  To  undertake  the 
defence  of  the  Virgin  Mary's  honour  had  such  a  resemblance  to  that  species 
of  refined  gallantry  which  was  the  original  object  of  chivalry,  that  the  zeal 
with  which  the  military  orders  bound  themselves,  by  a  solemn  vow,  to 


VOTE  xxxvn.]     PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  269 

defend  it,  was  worthy  of  a  true  knight  in  those  ages  when  the  spirit  of  the 
institution  subsisted  in  full  vigour.  But  in  the  present  age  it  must  excite 
some  surprise  to  see  the  institution  of  an  illustrious  order  connected  with 
a  doctrine  so  extravagant  and  destitute  of  any  foundation  in  Scripture. 

NOTE  XXXVIL— Sect  III.  p.  154. 

I  have  frequently  had  occasion  to  take  notice  of  the  defects  in  police 
during  the  Middle  Ages,  occasioned  by  the  feebleness  of  government  and 
the  want  of  proper  subordination  among  the  different  ranks  of  men.  I 
have  observed  in  a  former  note  that  this  greatly  interrupted  the  inter- 
course between  nations,  and  even  between  different  places  in  the  same 
kingdom.  The  descriptions  which  the  Spanish  historians  give  of  the 
frequency  of  rapine,  murder,  and  every  act  of  violence,  in  all  the  provinces 
of  Spain,  are  amazing,  and  present  to  us  the  idea  of  a  society  but  little 
removed  from  the  disorder  and  turbulence  of  that  which  has  been  called  a 
state  of  nature.  (Zurita,  Anales  de  Arag.,  i.  175  ;  ML  Ant.  Nebrissensis, 
Rer.  a  Ferdin.,  Gestar.  Hist.,  ap.  Schottum,  ii.  849.)  Though  the  excess 
of  these  disorders  rendered  the  institution  of  the  santa  hermandad  necessary, 
great  care  was  taken  at  first  to  avoid  giving  any  offence  or  alarm  to  the 
nobility.  The  jurisdiction  of  the  judges  of  the  hermandad  was  expressly 
confined  to  crimes  which  violated  the  public  peace.  All  other  offences 
were  left  to  the  cognizance  of  the  ordinary  judges.  If  a  person  was 
guilty  of  the  most  notorious  perjury,  in  any  trial  before  a  judge  of  the 
hermandad,  he  could  not  punish  him,  but  was  obliged  to  remit  the 
case  to  the  ordinary  judge  of  the  place.  (Commentaria  in  Regias 
Hispan.  Constitut.,  per  Alph.  de  Azevedo,  pars.  v.  p.  223,  etc.,  fol., 
Duaci,  1612.)  Notwithstanding  these  restrictions,  the  barons  were 
early  sensible  how  much  the  establishment  of  the  hermandad  would 
encroach  on  their  jurisdiction.  In  Castile  some  opposition  was  made 
to  the  institution ;  but  Ferdinand  had  the  address  to  obtain  the  consent 
of  the  constable  to  the  introduction  of  the  hermandad  into  that  part  of 
the  kingdom  where  his  estate  lay  ;  and  by  that  means,  as  well  as  the 
popularity  of  the  institution,  he  surmounted  every  obstacle  that  stood 
in  its  way.  (JE,l.  Ant.  Nebrissen,  851.)  In  Aragon  the  nobles  combined 
against  it  with  great  spirit ;  and  Ferdinand,  though  he  supported  it  with 
vigour,  was  obliged  to  make  some  concessions  in  order  to  reconcile  them. 
(Zurita,  Anales  de  Arag.,  iv.  :356.)  The  power  and  revenue  of  the 
hermandad  in  Castile  seem  to  have  been  very  great.  Ferdinand,  when 
preparing  for  the  war  against  the  Moors  of  Granada,  required  of  the 
hermandad  to  furnish  him  sixteen  thousand  beasts  of  burden,  together 
with  eight  thousand  men  to  conduct  them,  and  he  obtained  what  he 
demanded.  (ML  Ant  Nebriss.,  881.)  The  hermandad  has  been  found 
to  be  of  so  much  use  in  preserving  peace  and  restraining  or  detecting 
crimes  that  it  is  still  continued  in  Spain ;  but.  as  it  is  no  longer  necessary 
either  for  moderating  the  power  of  the  nobility  or  extending  that  of  the 
crown,  the  vigour  and  authority  of  the  institution  diminish  gradually. 


270  PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.    [NOTE  xxxvra. 


NOTE  XXXVIIL— Sect  IIL  p.  156. 

Nothing  is  more  common  among  antiquaries,  and  there  is  not  a  more 
copious  source  of  error,  than  to  decide  concerning  the  institutions  and 
manners  of  past  ages  by  the  forms  and  ideas  which  prevail  in  their  own 
times.  The  French  lawyers  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries, 
having  found  their  sovereigns  in  possession  of  absolute  power,  seem  to 
think  it  a  duty  incumbent  on  them  to  maintain  that  such  unbounded 
authority  belonged  to  the  crown  in  every  period  of  their  monarchy. 
"  The  government  of  France,"  says  M.  de  Re'al,  very  gravely,  "  is  purely 
monarchical  at  this  day,  as  it  was  from  the  beginning.  Our  kings  were 
absolute  originally,  as  they  are  at  present"  (Science  du  Gouvernement, 
torn.  ii.  p.  31.)  It  is  impossible,  however,  to  conceive  two  states  of  civil 
society  more  unlike  to  each  other  than  that  of  the  French  nation  under 
Clovis  and  that  under  Louis  XV.  It  is  evident  from  the  codes  of  laws  of 
the  various  tribes  which  settled  in  Gaul  and  the  countries  adjacent  to  it, 
as  well  as  from  the  history  of  Gregory  of  Tours,  and  other  early  annalists, 
that  among  all  these  people  the  form  of  government  was  extremely  rude 
and  simple,  and  that  they  had  scarcely  began  to  acquire  the  first  rudiments 
of  that  order  and  police  which  are  necessary  in  extensive  societies.  The 
king  or  leader  had  the  command  of  soldiers  or  companions,  who  followed 
his  standard  from  choice,  not  by  constraint.  I  have  produced  the  clearest 
evidence  of  this,  Note  VI.  An  event  related  by  Gregory  of  Tours,  lib.  iv. 
c.  14,  affords  the  most  striking  proof  of  the  dependence  of  the  early  French 
kings  on  the  sentiments  and  inclination  of  their  people.  Clotaire  I.  having 
marched  at  the  head  of  his  army,  in  the  year  553,  against  the  Saxons, 
that  people,  intimidated  at  his  approach,  sued  for  peace,  and  offered  to  pay 
a  large  sum  to  the  offended  monarch.  Clotaire  was  willing  to  close  with 
what  they  proposed.  But  his  army  insisted  to  be  led  forth  to  battle.  The 
king  employed  all  his  eloquence  to  persuade  them  to  accept  of  what  the 
Saxons  were  ready  to  pay.  The  Saxons,  in  order  to  soothe  them,  increased 
their  original  offer.  The  king  renewed  his  solicitations  ;  but  the  army, 
enraged,  rushed  upon  the  king,  tore  his  tent  in  pieces,  dragged  him  out  of 
it,  and  would  have  slain  him  on  the  spot,  if  he  had  not  consented  to  lead 
them  instantly  against  the  enemy. 

If  the  early  monarchs  of  France  possessed  such  limited  authority,  even 
while  at  the  head  of  their  army,  their  prerogative  during  peace  will  be 
found  to  be  still  more  confined.  They  ascended  the  throne  not  by  any 
hereditary  right,  but  in  consequence  of  the  election  of  their  subjects.  In 
order  to  avoid  an  unnecessary  number  of  quotations,  I  refer  my  readers  to 
Hottomanni  Franco-Gallia,  cap.  vi.  p.  47,  edit.  1573,  where  they  will  find 
the  fullest  proof  of  this  from  Gregory  of  Tours,  Amoinus,  and  the  most 
authentic  historians  of  the  Merovingian  kings.  The  effect  of  this  electiou 
was  not  to  invest  them  with  absolute  power.  Whatever  related  to  the 
general  welfare  of  the  nation  was  submitted  to  public  deliberation,  and 
determined  by  the  suffrage  of  the  people,  in  the  annual  assemblies  called 
"  les  champs  de  Mars  "  and  "  les  champs  de  Mai."  These  assemblies  were 
called  champs,  because,  according  to  the  custom  of  all  the  barbarous  nations, 
they  were  held  in  the  open  air  in  some  plain  capable  of  containing  the 


NOTE  xxxviri.]    PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  271 

vast  number  of  persons  who  had  a  right  to  be  present     (Jo.  Jac.  Sorberua 
de  Comitiis  Veterum  German orum,  voL  i.  §  19,  etc.)     They  were  denomi- 
nated Champs  de  Mars  and  de  Mai,  from  the  months  in  which  they  wore 
heW.     Every  freeman  seems  to  have  had  a  right  to  be  present  in  these 
assemblies.      (Sorberus,   ibid.,   §    133,   etc.)     The  ancient  annals  of  the 
Franks  Describe  the  persons  who  were  present  in  the  assembly  held  A.D 
788,  in  these  words  ;    "  In  placito  Ingelheimensi  conveniunt  pontihces, 
mujores,    minores,    sacerdotes,    reguli,    duces,    comites,    praefecti,    cives, 
oppidani."     (Apud  Sorber.,  §  304.)     There  every  thing  that  concerned 
the  happiness  of  their  country,  says  an  ancient  historian,  every  thing  that 
could  be  of  benefit  to  the  Franks,  was  considered  and  enjoined.      (Frede- 
garius,   ap.  Du  Cange,  Glossar.,  voc.   Campus  Martii.)     Chlotharius  II. 
describes  the  business  and  acknowledges  the  authority  of  these  assemblies. 
"  They  are  called,"  says  he,   "  that  whatever  relates  to  the  common  safety 
may  be  considered  and  resolved  by  common  deliberation ;  and  whatever 
they  determined,  to  that  I  will  conform."     (Amoinus  de  Gest   Franc., 
lib.  iv.  c.  i.,  ap.  Bouquet,   Recueil,   iii.    116.)     The  statutory  clauses  or 
words  of  legislative  authority  in  the  decrees  issued  in  these  assemblies  run 
not  in  the  name  of  the  king  alone.     "  We  have  treated,"  says  Childebert, 
in  a  decree,  A.D.  532,  in  the  assembly  of  March,  "  together  with  our  nobles, 
concerning  some  affairs,  and  we  now  publish  the  conclusion,  that  it  may 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  all."     (Childeb.  Deeret.,  ap.  Bouquet,  Recueil  des 
Histor.,  torn.  iv.  p.  3.)     "We  have  agreed  together  with  our  vassals." 
(Ibid.,  §  2.)     "  It  is  agreed  in  the  assembly  in  which  we  are  all  united." 
(Ibid.,  §  4.)     The  Salic  laws,  the  most  venerable  monument  of  French 
jurisprudence,  were  enacted  in  the  same  manner.      "  Dictaverunt  Salicam 
legem  proceres  ipsius  gentis,  qui  tune  temporis  apud  earn  erant  rectores. 
Sunt  autem   electi  de  pluribus   viri  quatuor — qui  per  tres   Mallos  con- 
venientes,    omnes   causarum    origir/i-?    ?olicite  discurrendo,   tractantes  de 
eingulis,  judicium  decreverunt  hoc  modo."     (Praef.    Leg.  Salic.,  ap.  Bou- 
quet, ibid.,  p.  122.)     "  Hoc  decretum  est  apud  regem  et  principes  ejus, 
et  apud   cunctum  populum  christianum,  qui  intra  regnum  Merwingorum 
consistunt."     (Ibid.,  p.  124.)     Nay,  even  in  their  charters  the  kings  of 
the  first  race  are  careful  to  specify  that  they  were  granted  with  the  consent 
of  their  vassals.     "  Ego  Childebertus,  rex,  una  cum  consensu  et  voluntate 
Francorum,"  etc.,  A.D.  558.      (Bouquet,  ibid.,  622.)     "  Chlotharius  III. 
una  cum  patribus  nostris,   episcopis,  optimatibus,  caeterisque  palatii  nostri 
ministris,"  A.D.  664.      (Ibid.,  648.)     "  De  consensu  fidelium  nostrorum." 
(Mably,  Observ.,  torn.  L  p.  239.)     The  historians  likewise  describe  the 
functions  of  the  king  in  the  national  assemblies  in   such  terms  as  imply 
that  his  authority  there  was  extremely  small,  and  that  every  thing  de- 
pended on  the  court  itself.     "  Ipse  rex,"  says  the  author  of  Annales  Fran- 
corum, speaking  of  the  Field  of  March,  "  sedebat  in  sella  regia,  circum- 
atante  exercitu,  praecipiebatque  is,   die  illo,  quicquid  a  Francis  decretum 
erat."     Bouquet,  Recueil,  torn.  ii.  p.  647. 

That  the  general  assemblies  exercised  supreme  jurisdiction  over  all  per- 
sons and  with  respect  to  all  causes  is  so  evident  as  to  stand  in  need  of 
no  proof.  The  trial  of  Brunehaut,  A.D.  613,  how  unjust  soever  the 
sentence  against  her  may  be,  as  related  by  Fredegarius  (Chron.,  cap.  42, 
Bouquet,  ibid.,  430),  is  in  itself  sufficient  proof  of  this.  The  notorious 


272  -PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTEATIONS.   [NOTE  xxxvin. 

violence  and  iniquity  of  the  sentence  serve  to  demonstrate  the  extent  of 
jurisdiction  which  this  assembly  possessed,  as  a  prince  so  sanguinary  as 
CJothaire  II.  thought  the  sanction  of  its  authority  would  be  sufficient  to 
justify  his  rigorous  treatment  of  the  mother  and  grandmother  of  so  many 
kings. 

With  respect  to  conferring  donatives  on  the  prince,  we  may  observe 
that  among  nations  whose  manners  and  political  institutions  are  simple, 
the  public,  as  well  as  individuals,  having  few  wants,  they  are  little 
acquainted  with  taxes,  and  free  uncivilized  tribes  disdain  to  submit  to 
uny  stated  imposition.  This  was  remarkably  the  case  of  the  Germans, 
and  of  all  the  various  peo'ple  that  issued  from  that  country.  Tacitus 
pronounces  two  tribes  not  to  be  of  German  origin,  because  they  submitted 
to  pay  taxes.  (De  Morib.  Germ.,  c.  43.)  And,  speaking  of  another  tribe 
according  to  the  ideas  prevalent  in  Germany,  he  says,  "  They  were  not 
degraded  by  the  imposition  of  taxes."  (Ibid.,  c.  29.)  Upon  the  settle- 
ment of  the  Franks  in  Gaul  we  may  conclude  that,  while  elated  with 
the  consciousness  of  victory,  they  would  not  renounce  the  high-spirited 
ideas  of  their  ancestors  or  voluntarily  submit  to  a  burden  which  they 
regarded  as  a  badge  of  servitude.  The  evidence  of  the  earliest  records 
and  historians  justifies  this  conclusion.  M.  de  Montesquieu,  in  the 
twelfth  and  subsequent  chapters  of  the  thirteenth  book  of  L'Esprit  des 
Loix,  and  M.  de  Mably,  Observations  sur  1'Histoire  de  France,  torn.  i. 
p.  247,  have  investigated  this  fact  with  great  attention,  and  have  proved 
clearly  that  the  property  of  freemen  among  the  Franks  was  not  subject 
to  any  stated  tax  ;  that  the  state  required  nothing  from  persons  of  this 
rank  but  military  service  at  their  own  expense,  and  that  they  should 
entertain  the  king  in  their  houses  when  he  was  upon  any  progress  through 
his  dominions,  or  his  officers  when  sent  on  any  public  employment, 
furnishing  them  with  carriages  and  horses.  Monarchs  subsisted  almost 
entirely  upon  the  revenues  of  their  own  domains,  and  upon  the  perquisites 
arising  from  the  administration  of  justice,  together  with  a  few  small 
fines  and  forfeitures  exacted  from  such  as  had  been  guilty  of  certain 
trespasses.  It  is  foreign  from  my  subject  to  enumerate  these.  The 
reader  may  find  them  in  Observations  de  M.  de  Mably,  vol.  i.  p.  267. 

When  any  extraordinary  aid  was  granted  by  freemen  to  their  sovereign 
it  was  purely  voluntary.  In  the  annual  assembly  of  March  or  May  it 
was  the  custom  to  make  the  king  a  present  of  money,  of  horses  or  arms, 
or  of  some  other  thing  of  value.  This  was  an  ancient  custom,  and 
derived  from  their  ancestors  the  Germans.  "  Mos  est  civitatibus,  ultro 
ac  viritim  conferre  principibus,  vel  armentorum,  vel  frugum,  quod  pro 
honore  acceptum,  etiam  necessitatibus  subvenit."  (Tacit.,  de  Mor.  Germ., 
c,  15.)  These  gifts,  if  we  may  form  a  judgment  concerning  them  from 
the  general  terms  in  which  they  are  mentioned  by  the  ancient  historians, 
were  considerable,  and  made  no  small  part  of  the  royal  revenue.  Many 
passages  to  this  purpose  are  produced  by  M.  Du  Cange,  Dissert.  IV.  sur 
Joinville,  p.  153.  Sometimes  a  conquered  people  specified  the  gift  which 
they  bound  themselves  to  pay  annually,  and  it  was  exacted  as  a  debt  if 
they  failed.  (Anales  Metenses,  ap.  Du  Cange,  ibid.,  p.  155.)  It  is 
probable  that  the  first  step  towards  taxation  was  to  ascertain  the  value 
of  these  gifts,  which  were  originally  gratuitous,  and  to  compel  the  people 


NOTE  xxxviii.]    PitOOb'S  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  273 

to  pay  the  sum  at  which  they  were  rated.  Still,  however,  some  memory 
of  their  original  was  preserved,  and  the  aids  granted  to  monarchs  in 
all  the  kingdoms  of  Europe  were  termed  benevolences  or  free  gifts. 

The  kings  of  the  second  race  in  France  were  raised  to  the  throne 
by  the  election  of  the  people.  "  Pepinus  rex  pius,"  says  an  author 
who  wrote  a  few  years  after  the  transaction  which  he  records,  "  per 
authoritatein  papae,  et  unctionem  sancti  chrismatis  et  electionem  omnium 
Francorum  in  regni  solio  sublimatus  est."  (Clausula  de  Pepini  Con- 
secratione,  ap.  Bouq.,  Recueil  des  Histor.,  torn.  v.  p.  9.)  At  the  same 
time,  as  the  chief  men  of  the  nation  had  transferred  the  crown  from  one 
family  to  another,  an  oath  was  exacted  of  them  that  they  should 
maintain  on  the  throne  the  family  which  they  had  now  promoted  :  "  ut 
nunquam  de  alterius  lumbis  regem  in  aevo  praesumant  eligere."  (Ibid., 
p.  10.)  This  oath  the  nation  faithfully  observed  during  a  considerable 
space  of  time.  The  posterity  of  Pepin  kept  possession  of  the  throne  ; 
but  with  respect  to  the  manner  of  dividing  their  dominions  among  their 
children,  princes  were  obliged  to  consult  the  general  assembly  of  the 
nation.  Thus,  Pepin  himself,  A.D.  768,  appointed  his  two  sons,  Charles 
and  Carlomannus,  to  reign  as  joint  sovereigns  ;  but  he  did  this  "  una  cum 
consensu  Francorum  et  procerum  suorum  seu  et  episcoporum,"  before 
whom  he  laid  the  matter  in  their  general  assembly.  (Conventus  apud 
Sanctum  Dionysium,  Capitular.,  vol.  i.  p.  187.)  This  destination  the 
French  confirmed  in  a  subsequent  assembly,  which  was  called  upon  the 
death  of  Pepin ;  for,  as  Eginhart  relates,  they  not  only  appointed  them 
kings,  but  by  their  authority  they  regulated  the  limits  of  their  respective 
territories.  (Vita  Car.  Magni,  ap.  Bouquet,  Recueil,  torn.  v.  p.  90.) 
In  the  same  manner,  it  was  by  the  authority  of  the  supreme  assemblies 
that  any  dispute  which  arose  among  the  descendants  of  the  royal  family 
was  determined.  Charlemagne  recognizes  this  important  part  of  their 
jurisdiction,  and  confirms  it,  in  his  charter  concerning  the  partition  of  his 
dominions  ;  for  he  appoints  that,  in  case  of  any  uncertainty  with  respect 
to  the  right  of  the  several  competitors,  he  whom  the  people  choose  shall 
succeed  to  the  crown.  Capitular.,  vol.  i.  p.  442. 

Under  the  second  race  of  kings,  the  assemblies  of  the  nation,  dis- 
tinguished by  the  name  of  conventiis,  malli,  placita,  were  regularly 
assembled  once  a  year  at  least,  and  frequently  twice  in  the  year.  One 
of  the  most  valuable  monuments  of  the  history  of  France  is  the  treatise 
of  Hincmarus,  archbishop  of  Rheims,  De  Ordine  Palatii.  He  died  A.D. 
882,  only  sixty-eight  years  after  Charlemagne,  and  he  relates  in  that  short 
discourse  the  facts  which  were  communicated  to  him  by  Adalhardus,  a 
minister  and  confidant  of  Charlemagne.  From  him  we  learn  that  this 
great  monarch  never  failed  to  hold  the  general  assembly  of  his  subjects 
every  year.  "  In  quo  placito  generalitas  universorum  majorum  tarn 
clericorum  quam  laicorum  conveniebat."  (Hincm.,  Oper.,  edit.  Sirmondi, 
vol.  ii.  c.  29,  p.  211.)  In  these  assemblies  matters  which  related  to  the 
general  safety  and  state  of  the  kingdom  were  always  discussed  before 
they  entered  upon  any  private  or  less  important  business.  (Ibid.,  c.  33, 
p.  213.)  His  immediate  successors  imitated  his  example,  and  transacted 
no  affair  of  importance  without  the  advice  of  their  great  council. 

Under  the  second  race  of  kings  the  genius  of  the  French  government 

YOL.    I.  T 


274  PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.    [NOTE  xxxvm. 

continued  to  be  in  a  good  measure  democratical.  The  nobles,  the  dignified 
ecclesiastics,  and  the  great  officer?  of  the  crown  were  not  the  only  members 
of  the  national  council ;  the  people,  or  the  whole  body  of  freemen,  either 
in  person  or  by  their  representatives,  had  a  right  to  be  present  in  it. 
Hincmarus,  in  describing  the  manner  of  holding  the  general  assemblies,  says 
that  if  the  weather  was  favourable  they  met  in  the  open  air ;  but  if 
otherwise,  they  had  different  apartments  allotted  to  them ;  so  that  the 
dignified  clergy  were  separated  from  the  laity,  and  the  "  comites  vel 
hujusmodi  principes  sibimet  honorificabiliter  a  caetera  nmltitudine  segre- 
garentur."  (Ibid.,  c.  35,  p.  114.)  Agobardus,  archbishop  of  Lyons,  thus 
describes  a  national  council  in  the  year  833,  wherein  he  was  present  : 
"  Qui  ubique  conventus  extitit  ex  reverendissimis  episcopis,  et  magnifi- 
centissimis  viris  illustribus,  collegio  quoque  abbatuin  et  comitum,  pro- 
miscuseque  setatis  et  dignitatis  populo."  The  ccetera  multitude  of  Hincmarus 
is  the  same  with  the  populus  of  Agobardus,  and  both  describe  the  inferior 
order  of  freemen,  the  same  who  were  afterwards  known  in  France  by  the 
name  of  the  third  estate,  and  in  England  by  the  name  of  commons.  The 
people,  as  well  as  the  members  of  higher  dignity,  were  admitted  to  a 
share  of  the  legislative  power.  Thus,  by  a  law,  A.D.  803,  it  is  ordained, 
"  That  the  question  shall  be  put  to  the  people  with  respect  to  every  new 
law,  and  if  they  shall  agree  to  it  they  shall  confirm  it  by  their  signature." 
(Capit.,  vol.  i.  p.  394.)  There  are  two  capitularia  which  convey  to  us  a 
full  idea  of  the  part  which  the  people  took  in  the  administration  of 
government.  When  they  felt  the  weight  of  any  grievance,  they  had  a 
right  to  petition  the  sovereign  for  redress.  One  of  these  petitions,  in 
which  they  desire  that  ecclesiastics  might  be  exempted  from  bearing  arms 
and  from  serving  in  person  against  the  enemy,  is  still  extant.  It  is 
addressed  to  Charlemagne,  A.D.  803,  and  expressed  in  such  terms  as  could 
have  been  used  only  by  men  conscious  of  liberty,  and  of  the  extensive 
privileges  which  they  possessed.  They  conclude  with  requiring  him  to 
grant  their  demand  if  he  wished  that  they  should  any  longer  continue 
faithful  subjects  to  him.  That  great  monarch,  instead  of  being  offended 
or  surprised  at  the  boldness  of  their  petition,  received  it  in  a  most  gracious 
manner,  and  signified  his  willingness  to  comply  with  it.  But,  sensible 
that  he  himself  did  not  possess  legislative  authority,  he  promises  to  lay 
the  matter  before  the  next  general  assembly,  that  such  things  as  were  of 
common  concern  to  all  might  be  there  considered  and  established  by 
common  consent.  (Capitul.,  torn.  i.  pp.  405 — 409.)  As  the  people  by 
their  petitions  brought  matters  to  be  proposed  in  the  general  assembly, 
we  learn  from  another  capitulare  the  form  in  which  they  were  approved 
there  and  enacted  as  laws.  The  propositions  were  read  aloud,  and  then 
the  people  were  required  to  declare  whether  they  assented  to  them  or  not. 
They  signified  their  assent  by  crying  three  times,  "  We  are  satisfied  ; "  and 
then  the  capitulare  was  confirmed  by  the  subscription  of  the  monarch, 
the  clergy,  and  the  chief  men  of  the  laity.  (Capitul.,  torn.  i.  p.  627, 
A.D.  822.)  It  seems  probable  from  a  capitulare  of  Carolus  Calvus,  A.D. 
851,  that  the  sovereign  could  not  refuse  his  assent  to  what  was  proposed 
and  established  by  his  subjects  in  the  general  assembly.  (Tit.  ix.  §  6  ; 
Capitul.,  vol.  ii.  p.  47.)  It  is  unnecessary  to  multiply  quotations  con- 
cerning th*i  legislative  power  of  the  national  assembly  of  France  under 


NOTE  xxxix.]      PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  275 

the  second  race,  or  concerning  its  right  to  determine  with  regard  to  peace 
and  war.  The  uniform  style  of  the  Capitularia  is  an  abundant  confirma- 
tion of  the  former.  The  reader  who  desires  any  further  information  with 
respect  to  the  latter  may  consult  Les  Origines  ou  1'ancien  Gouvemement 
de  la  France,  etc.,  torn.  iii.  p.  87,  etc.  What  has  been  said  with  respect 
to  the  admission  of  the  people  or  their  representatives  into  the  supreme 
assembly  merits  attention,  not  only  in  tracing  the  progress  of  the  French 
government,  but  on  account  of  the  light  which  it  throws  upon  a  similar 
question  agitated  in  England  concerning  the  time  when  the  commons 
became  part  of  the  legislative  body  in  that  kingdom. 

NOTE  XXXIX.— SECT.  III.  p.  158 

That  important  change  which  the  constitution  of  France  underwent 
when  the  legislative  power  was  transferred  from  the  great  council  of  the 
nation  to  the  king  has  been  explained  by  the  French  antiquaries  with 
less  care  than  they  bestow  in  illustrating  other  events  in  their  history. 
For  that  reason  I  have  endeavoured  with  greater  attention  to  trace  the 
steps  which  led  to  this  memorable  revolution.  I  shall  here  add  some 
particulars  which  tend  to  throw  additional  light  upon  it.  The  Leges 
Salicae,  the  Leges  Burgundionum,  and  other  codes  published  by  the  several 
tribes  which  settled  in  Gaul  were  general  laws  extending  to  every  person, 
to  every  province  and  district  where  the  authority  of  those  tribes  was 
acknowledged.  But  they  seem  to  have  become  obsolete  ;  and  the  reason 
of  their  falling  into  disuse  is  very  obvious.  Almost  the  whole  property 
of  the  nation  was  allodial  when  these  laws  were  framed.  But  when  the 
''eudal  institutions  became  general,  and  gave  rise  to  an  infinite  variety  of 
questions  peculiar  to  that  species  of  tenure,  the  ancient  codes  were  of  no 
use  in  deciding  with  regard  to  these,  because  they  could  not  contain 
regulations  applicable  to  cases  which  did  not  exist  at  the  time  when  they 
were  compiled.  This  considerable  change  in  the  nature  of  property  made 
it  necessary  to  publish  the  new  regulations  contained  in  the  capitularm, 
Many  of  these,  as  is  evident  from  the  perusal  of  them,  were  public  laws 
extending  to  the  whole  French  nation,  in  the  general  assembly  of  which 
they  were  enacted.  The  weakness  of  the  greater  part  of  the  monarcha 
of  the  second  race,  and  the  disorder  into  which  the  nation  was  thrown 
by  the  depredations  of  the  Normans,  encouraged  the  barons  to  usurp  an 
independent  power  formerly  unknown  in  France.  The  nature  and  extent 
of  that  jurisdiction  which  they  assumed  I  have  formerly  considered. 
The  political  union  of  the  kingdom  was  at  an  end,  its  ancient  constitution 
was  dissolved,  and  only  a  feudal  relation  subsisted  between  the  king  and 
Ids  vassals.  The  regal  jurisdiction  extended  no  further  than  the  domains 
of  the  crown.  Under  the  last  kings  of  the  second  race  these  were  reduced 
almost  to  nothing.  Under  the  first  kings  of  the  third  race  they  com- 
prehended little  more  than  the  patrimonial  estate  of  Hugh  Capet,  which 
he  annexed  to  the  crown.  Even  with  this  accession  they  continued  to 
be  of  small  extent.  (Velly,  Hist  de  France,  torn.  iii.  p.  32.)  Many  of 
the  most  considerable  provinces  in  France  did  not  at  first  acknowledge 
Hugh  Capet  as  a  lawful  monarch.  There  are  still  extant  several  charters, 
granted  during  the  first  years  of  Ms  reign,  with  this  renutkable  clause  in 

T  2 


276  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.      [NOTE  xxxnc. 

the  form  of  dating  the  charter :  "  Deo  regnante,  rege  expectante,  regnante 
Domino  nostro  Jesu  Christo  Francis  autem  contra  jus  regnum  usurpante 
Ugone  rege."  (Bouquet,  Recueil,  torn.  x.  p.  544.)  A  monarch  whose 
title  was  thus  openly  disputed  was  not  in  a  condition  to  assert  the  royal 
jurisdiction,  or  to  limit  that  of  the  barons. 

All  these  circumstances  rendered  it  easy  for  the  barons  to  usurp  the 
rights  of  royalty  within  their  own  territories.  The  Capitularia  became  no 
less  obsolete  than  the  ancient  laws  ;  local  customs  were  everywhere  intro- 
duced, and  became  the  sole  rule  by  which  all  civil  transactions  were  con- 
ducted and  all  causes  were  tried.  The  wonderful  ignorance  which  became 
general  in  France  during  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  contributed  to  the 
introduction  of  customary  law.  Few  persons,  except  ecclesiastics,  could 
read ;  and  as  it  was  not  in  the  power  of  such  illiterate  persons  to  have 
recourse  to  written  laws,  either  as  their  guide  in  business  or  their  rule  in 
administering  justice,  the  customary  law,  the  knowledge  of  which  was 
preserved  by  tradition,  universally  prevailed. 

During  this  period  the  general  assembly  of  the  nation  seems  not  to 
have  been  called,  nor  to  have  once  exerted  its  legislative  authority.  Local 
customs  regulated  and  decided  everything.  A  striking  proof  of  this 
occurs  in  tracing  the  progress  of  the  French  jurisprudence.  The  last  of 
the  Capitularia  collected  by  M.  Baluze  was  issued  in  the  year  921,  by 
Charles  the  Simple.  A  hundred  and  thirty  years  elapsed  from  that 
period  to  the  publication  of  the  first  ordinance  of  the  kings  of  the  third 
race,  contained  in  the  great  collection  of  M.  Lauriere,  and  the  first  ordi- 
nance which  appears  to  be  an  act  of  legislation  extending  to  the  whole 
kingdom  is  that  of  Philip  Augustus,  A.D.  1 190.  (Ordon.,  torn.  i.  pp.  1,18.) 
During  that  long  period  of  two  hundred  and  sixty-nine  years  all  transac- 
tions were  directed  by  local  customs,  and  no  addition  was  made  to  the 
statutory  law  of  France.  The  ordinances  previous  to  the  reign  of  Philip 
Augustus  contain  regulations  the  authority  of  which  did  not  extend  beyond 
the  king's  domains. 

Various  instances  occur  of  the  caution  with  which  the  kings  of  France 
ventured  at  first  to  exercise  legislative  authority.  M.  1'Abbd  de  Mably 
produces  an  ordinance  of  Philip  Augustus,  A.D.  1206,  concerning  the 
Jews,  who  in  that  age  were  in  some  measure  the  property  of  the  lord  in 
whose  territories  they  resided.  But  it  is  rather  a  treaty  of  the  king  with 
the  Countess  of  Champagne  and  the  Compte  de  Dampierre,  than  an  act  of 
royal  power  ;  and  the  regulations  in  it  seem  to  be  established  not  so  much 
by  his  authority  as  by  their  consent  (Observat.  sur  1'Hist.  de  France, 
ii  p.  355.)  In  the  same  manner  an  ordinance  of  Louis  VIII.  concerning 
the  Jews,  A.D.  1223,  is  a  contract  between  the  king  and  his  nobles  with 
respect  to  their  manner  of  treating  that  unhappy  race  of  men.  (Ordon. , 
torn,  i  p.  47.)  The  Establissemens  of  St.  Louis,  though  well  adapted  to 
serve  as  general  laws  to  the  whole  kingdom,  were  not  published  as  such, 
but  only  as  a  complete  code  of  customary  law,  to  be  of  authority  within  the 
king's  domains.  The  wisdom,  the  equity,  and  the  order  conspicuous  in 
that  code  of  St.  Louis  procured  it  a  favourable  reception  throughout  the 
kingdom.  The  veneration  due  to  the  virtues  and  good  intentions  of  its 
author  contributed  not  a  little  to  reconcile  the  nation  to  that  legislative 
authority  which  the  king  began  to  assume.  Soon  after  the  reign  of 


NOTE  XL.]  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  277 

St.  Louis,  the  idea  of  the  king's  possessing  supreme  legislative  powei 
became  common.  "  If,"  says  Beaumanoir,  "  the  king  makes  any  estab- 
lishment specially  for  his  own  domain,  the  barons  may  nevertheless  adhere 
to  their  ancient  customs  r  t/ut  if  the  establishment  be  general  it  shall  be 
current  throughout  the  whole  kingdom,  and  we  ought  to  believe  that  such 
establishments  are  made  with  mature  deliberation,  and  for  the  general 
good."  (Coust.  de  Beauvoisis,  c.  48,  p.  265.)  Though  the  kings  of  the 
third  race  did  not  call  the  general  assembly  of  the  nation  during  the  long 
period  from  Hugh  Capet  to  Philip  the  Fair,  yet  they  seem  to  have  con- 
sulted the  bishops  and  barons  who  happened  to  be  present  in  their  court, 
with  respect  to  any  new  law  which  they  published.  Examples  of  this 
occur,  Ordon.,  torn.  L  p.  3  et  5.  This  practice  seems  to  have  continued  as 
late  as  the  reign  of  St.  Louis,  when  the  legislative  authority  of  the  crown 
was  well  established.  (Ordon.,  torn.  L  p.  58,  A.D.  1246.)  This  attention 
paid  to  the  barons  facilitated  the  kings'  acquiring  such  full  possession  of 
the  legislative  power  as  enabled  them  afterwards  to  exercise  it  without 
observing  that  formality. 

The  assemblies  distinguished  by  the  name  of  the  states-general  were 
first  called  A.D.  1302,  and  were  held  occasionally  from  that  period  to  the 
year  1614,  since  which  time  they  have  not  been  summoned.  These  were 
very  different  from  the  ancient  assemblies  of  the  French  nation  under  the 
kings  of  the  first  and  second  race.  There  is  no  point  with  respect  to 
which  the  French  antiquaries  are  more  generally  agreed  than  in  main- 
taining that  the  states-general  had  no  suffrage  in  the  passing  of  laws  and 
possessed  no  proper  legislative  jurisdiction.  The  whole  tenor  of  the 
French  history  confirms  this  opinion.  The  form  of  proceeding  in  the 
states-general  was  this.  The  king  addressed  himself,  at  opening  the 
meeting,  to  the  whole  body  assembled  in  one  place,  and  laid  before  them 
the  affairs  on  account  of  which  he  had  summoned  them.  Then  the  depu- 
ties of  each  of  the  three  orders,  of  nobles,  of  clergy,  and  of  the  third 
estate,  met  apart,  and  prepared  their  cahier,  or  memorial,  containing  their 
answer  to  the  propositions  which  had  been  made  to  them,  together  with 
the  representations  which  they  thought  proper  to  lay  before  the  king. 
These  answers  and  representations  were  considered  by  the  king  in  his 
council,  and  generally  gave  rise  to  an  ordinance.  These  ordinances  were 
not  addressed  to  the  three  estates  in  common.  Sometimes  the  king  ad- 
dressed an  ordinance  to  each  of  the  estates  in  particular.  Sometimes  he 
mentioned  the  assembly  of  the  three  estates.  Sometimes  mention  is  made 
only  of  the  assembly  of  that  estate  to  which  the  ordinance  is  addressed. 
Sometimes  no  mention  at  all  is  made  of  the  assembly  of  estates,  which 
suggested  the  propriety  of  enacting  the  law.  Preface  au  torn.  iii.  des 
Ordon.,  p.  xx. 

Thus  the  states-general  had  only  the  privilege  of  advising  and  remon- 
strating ;  the  legislative  authority  resided  in  the  king  alone. 

NOTE  XL. — Sect  III.  p.  162. 

If  the  parliament  of  Paris  be  considered  only  as  the  supreme  court  of 
justice,  everything  relative  to  its  origin  and  jurisdiction  is  clear  and 
obvious.  It  is  the  ancient  court  of  the  king's  palace,  new-modelled, 


278  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTEATIONS.  [NOTE  xu 

rendered  stationary,  arid  invested  with  an  extensive  and  ascertained  juris- 
diction. The  power  of  this  court  while  employed  in  this  part  of  its 
functions  is  not  the  object  of  present  consideration.  The  pretensions  of 
the  parliament  to  control  the  exercise  of  the  legislative  authority,  and  its 
claim  of  a  right  to  interpose  with  respect  to  public  affairs  and  the  political 
administration  of  the  kingdom,  lead  to  inquiries  attended  with  great 
difficulty.  As  the  officers  and  members  of  the  parliament  of  Paris  were 
anciently  nominated  by  the  king,  were  paid  by  him,  and  on  several  occa- 
sions were  removed  by  him  at  pleasure  (Chronic,  scandaleuse  de  Louis  XI. 
chez  les  Mem.  de  Comines,  torn.  ii.  p.  51,  edit,  de  M.  Lenglet  de  Fresnoy), 
they  cannot  be  considered  as  representatives  of  the  people,  nor  could  they 
claim  any  share  in  the  legislative  power  as  acting  in  their  name.  We 
must  therefore  search  for  some  other  source  of  this  high  privilege.  1.  The 
parliament  was  originally  composed  of  the  most  eminent  persons  in  the 
kingdom.  The  peers  of  France,  ecclesiastics  of  the  highest  order,  and 
noblemen  of  illustrious  birth,  were  members  of  it,  to  whom  were  added 
some  clerks  and  councillors  learned  in  the  laws.  (Pasquier,  Recherches, 
p.  44,  etc. ;  Encyclopedic,  torn,  xii  art.  Parlement,  pp.  3,  5.)  A  court 
thus  constituted  was  properly  a  committee  of  the  states-general  of  the 
kingdom,  and  was  composed  of  those  barons  and  fideles  whom  the  kings  of 
France  were  accustomed  to  consult  with  regard  to  every  act  of  jurisdiction 
or  legislative  authority.  It  was  natural,  therefore,  during  the  intervals 
between  the  meetings  of  the  states-general,  or  during  those  periods  when 
that  assembly  was  not  called,  to  consult  the  parliament,  to  lay  matters  of 
public  concern  before  it,  and  to  obtain  its  approbation  and  concurrence, 
before  any  ordinance  was  published,  to  which  the  people  were  required  to 
conform.  2.  Under  the  second  race  of  kings,  every  new  law  was  reduced 
into  proper  form  by  the  chancellor  of  the  kingdom,  was  proposed  by  him 
to  the  people,  and,  when  enacted,  was  committed  to  him  to  be  kept 
among  the  public  records,  that  he  might  give  authentic  copies  of  it  to  all  who 
should  demand  them.  (Hincm.,  de  Ord.  Palat.,  c.  16  ;  Capitul.  Car.  Calv., 
tit.  xiv.  §  11,  tit.  xxxiii.)  The  chancellor  presided  in  the  parliament  of 
Paris  at  its  first  institution.  (Encyclopedic,  torn.  iii.  art.  Chancelier,  p.  88.) 
It  was,  therefore,  natural  for  the  king  to  continue  to  employ  him  in  his 
ancient  functions  of  framing,  taking  into  his  custody,  and  publishing  the 
ordinances  which  were  issued.  To  an  ancient  copy  of  the  Capitularia  of 
Charlemagne  the  following  words  are  subjoined  :  "  Anno  tertio  clementis- 
simi  domini  nostri  Caroli  Augusti,  sub  ipso  anno,  hsec  facta  Capitula  sunt, 
et  consignata  Stephano  comiti,  ut  hsec  manifesta  faceret  Parisiis  mallo 
publico,  et  ilia  legere  faceret  coram  scabineis,  quod  ita  et  fecit,  et  omnes 
in  uno  consenserunt,  quod  ipsi  voluissent  observare  usque  in  posterum, 
etiam  omnes  scabinei,  episcopi,  abbates,  comites,  manu  propria  subter 
signaverunt"  (Bouquet,  Recueil,  torn.  v.  p.  663.)  Mallus  signifies  not 
only  the  public  assembly  of  the  nation,  but  the  court  of  justice  held  by 
the  comes,  or  missus  dominicus.  Scabinei  were  the  judges,  or  the  assessors 
of  the  judges,  in  that  court.  Here,  then,  seems  to  be  a  very  early  instance 
not  only  of  laws  being  published  in  a  court  of  justice,  but  of  their  being 
verified  or  confirmed  by  the  subscription  of  the  judges.  If  this  was  the 
common  practice,  it  naturally  introduced  the  verifying  of  edicts  in  the 
parliament  of  Paris.  But  this  conjecture  I  propose  with  that  diffidence 


NOTE  iL.]  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTEATIONS.  270 

which  I  have  felt  in  all  my  reasonings  concerning  the  laws  and  institutions 
of  foreign  nations.  3.  This  supreme  court  of  justice  in  France  was  digni- 
fied with  the  appellation  of  parliament,  the  name  by  which  the  general 
assembly  of  the  nation  was  distinguished  towards  the  close  of  the  second 
race  of  kings  ;  and  men,  both  in  reasoning  and  in  conduct,  were  wonder- 
fully influenced  by  the  similarity  of  names.  The  preserving  the  ancient 
names  of  the  magistrates  established  while  the  republican  government 
subsisted  in  Home  enabled  Augustus  and  his  successors  to  assume  new 
powers  with  less  observation  and  greater  ease.  The  bestowing  the  same 
name  in  France  upon  two  courts  which  were  extremely  different  contri- 
buted not  a  little  to  confound  their  jurisdictions  and  functions. 

All  these  circumstances  concurred  in  leading  the  kings  of  France  to 
avail  themselves  of  the  parliament  of  Paris  as  the  instrument  of  reconciling 
the  people  to  the  exercise  of  legislative  authority  by  the  crown.  The 
French,  accustomed  to  see  all  new  laws  examined  and  authorized  before 
they  were  published,  did  not  sufficiently  distinguish  between  the  effect  of 
performing  this  in  the  national  assembly  or  in  a  court  appointed  by  the 
king.  But  as  that  court  was  composed  of  respectable  members,  and  who 
were  well  skilled  in  the  laws  of  their  country,  when  any  new  edict  received 
its  sanction,  that  was  sufficient  lo  dispose  the  people  to  submit  to  it. 

When  the  practice  of  verifying  and  registering  the  royal  edicts  in  the 
parliament  of  Paris  became  common,  the  parliament  contended  that  this 
was  necessary  in  order  to  give  them  legal  authority.  It  was  established  as 
a  fundamental  maxim  in  French  jurisprudence  that  no  law  could  be  pub- 
lished in  any  other  manner  ;  that  without  this  formality  no  edict  or  ordi- 
nance could  have  any  effect ;  that  the  people  were  not  bound  to  obey  it, 
and  ought  not  to  consider  it  as  an  edict  or  ordinance,  until  it  was  verified 
in  the  supreme  court  after  free  deliberation.  (Roche-flavin  des  Parlemens 
de  France,  4to,  Gen.,  1621,  p.  921.)  The  parliament,  at  different  times, 
hath,  with  great  fortitude  and  integrity,  opposed  the  will  of  their  sovereigns, 
and,  notwithstanding  their  repeated  and  peremptory  requisitions  and  com- 
mands, hath  refused  to  verify  and  publish  such  edicts  as  it  conceived  to  be 
oppressive  to  the  people  or  subversive  of  the  constitution  of  the  kingdom. 
Roche-flavin  reckons  that  between  the  year  1562  and  the  year  1589  the 
parliament  refused  to  verify  more  than  a  hundred  edicts  of  the  kings. 
(Ibid.,  925.)  Many  instances  of  the  spirit  and  constancy  with  which  the 
parliaments  of  France  opposed  pernicious  laws  and  asserted  their  own  pri- 
vileges are  enumerated  by  Limnaeus  in  his  Notitise  Regni  Franciae,  lib.  i. 
c.  9,  p.  224. 

But  the  power  of  the  parliament  to  maintain  and  defend  this  privilege 
bore  no  proportion  to  its  importance,  or  to  the  courage  with  which  the 
members  asserted  it.  When  any  monarch  was  determined  that  an  edict 
should  be  carried  into  execution,  and  found  the  parliament  inflexibly  re- 
solved not  to  verify  or  publish  it,  he  could  easily  supply  this  defect  by  the 
plenitude  of  his  regal  power.  He  repaired  to  the  parliament  in  person,  he 
took  possession  of  his  seat  of  justice,  and  commanded  the  edict  to  be  read, 
verified,  registered,  and  published  in  his  presence.  Then,  according  to 
another  maxim  of  French  law,  the  king  himself  being  present,  neither  the 
parliament  nor  any  magistrate  whatever  can  exercise  any  authority  or  per- 
form any  function.  "  Adveniente  principe,  cessat  magistrates."  (Roche- 


280  PEOOFe  AND  ILLUSTEATIONS.          [NOTE  XLII. 

flavin,  ibid.,  pp.  928,  929  ;  Encyclopedic,  torn,  be.,  art.  Lit.  de  Justice, 
p.  581.)  Eoche-flavin  mentions  several  instances  of  kings  who  actually 
exerted  this  prerogative,  so  fatal  to  the  residue  of  the  rights  and  liberties 
transmitted  to  the  French  by  their  ancestors.  Pasquier  produces  some 
instances  of  the  same  kind.  (Eech.,  p.  61.)  Limnseus  enumerates  many 
other  instances ;  but  the  length  to  which  this  note  has  swelled  prevents  me 
from  inserting  them  at  length,  though  they  tend  greatly  to  illustrate  this 
important  article  in  the  French  history  (p.  245).  Thus,  by  an  exertion  of 
prerogative  which,  though  violent,  seems  to  be  constitutional,  and  is  justi- 
fied by  innumerable  precedents,  all  the  efforts  of  the  parliament  to  limit 
and  control  the  king's  legislative  authority  are  rendered  ineffectual. 

I  have  not  attempted  to  explain  the  constitution  or  jurisdiction  of  any 
parliament  in  France  but  that  of  Paris.  All  of  them  are  formed  upon  the 
model  of  that  most  ancient  and  respectable  tribunal,  and  all  my  observa- 
tions concerning  it  will  apply  with  full  force  to  them. 

NOTB  XLL— Sect  III.  p.  166. 

The  humiliating  posture  in  which  a  great  emperor  implored  absolution 
is  an  event  so  singular  that  the  words  in  which  Gregory  himself  describes 
it  merit  a  place  here,  and  convey  a  striking  picture  of  the  arrogance  of  that 
pontiff :  "  Per  triduum,  ante  portam  castri,  deposito  ornni  regio  cultu, 
miserabiliter,  utpote  discalceatus,  et  laneis  indutus,  persistens,  non  prius 
cum  multo  fletu  apostolicae  miserationis  auxilium  et  consolationem  implorari 
destitit,  quam  omnes  qui  ibi  aderant,  et  ad  quos  rumor  ille  pervenit,  ad 
tun  tarn  pietatem,  et  compassionis  misericordiam  movit,  ut  pro  eo  multis  preci- 
bus  et  lacrymis  intercedentes,  omnes  quidem  insolitam  nostrje  mentis  duri- 
tiem  mirarentur  ;  nonnulli  vero  in  nobis  non  apostolicsD  sedis  gravitatem, 
sed  quasi  tyrannicse  feritatis  crudelitatem  esse  clamarunt"  Epist  Gregor., 
ap.  Memorie  della  Contessa  Matilda  da  Fran.  Mar.  Fiorentini,  Lucca,  1756, 
voL  i  p.  174. 

NOTE  XLII.— Sect  III.  p.  174. 

As  I  have  endeavoured  in  the  history  to  trace  the  various  steps  in  the 
progress  of  the  constitution  of  the  empire,  and  to  explain  the  peculiari- 
ties in  its  policy  very  fully,  it  is  not  necessary  to  add  much  by  way  of 
illustration.  What  appears  to  be  of  any  importance  I  shall  range  under 
distinct  heads. 

1.  With  respect  to  the  power,  jurisdiction,  and  revenue  of  the  emperors. 
A  very  just  idea  of  these  may  be  formed  by  attending  to  the  view  which 
Pfeffel  gives  of  the  rights  of  the  emperors  at  two  different  periods.  The 
first  at  the  close  of  the  Saxon  race,  A.D.  1024.  These,  according  to  his 
enumeration,  were  the  right  of  conferring  all  the  great  ecclesiastical  bene- 
fices in  Germany ;  of  receiving  the  revenues  of  them  during  a  vacancy ;  of 
mortmain,  or  of  succeeding  to  the  effects  of  ecclesiastics  who  died  intestate. 
The  right  of  confirming  or  of  annulling  the  elections  of  the  popes.  The 
right  of  assembling  councils,  and  of  appointing  their*  to  decide  concerning 
the  affairs  of  the  Church.  The  right  of  conferring  the  title  of  king  upon 
their  vassals.  The  right  of  granting  vacant  fiefs.  The  right  of  receiving 


NOTE  XLII.]          PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTBATIONS.  281 

the  revenues  of  the  empire,  whether  arising  from  the  imperial  domains,  from 
imposts  and  tolls,  from  gold  or  silver  mines,  from  the  taxes  paid  by  the 
Jews,  or  from  forfeitures.  The  right  of  governing  Italy  as  its  proper  sove- 
reigns. The  right  of  erecting  free  cities  and  of  establishing  fairs  in  them. 
The  right  of  assembling  the  diets  of  the  empire  and  of  fixing  the  time  of 
their  duration.  The  right  of  coining  money,  and  of  conferring  that  privi- 
lege on  the  states  of  the  empire.  The  right  of  administering  both  high 
and  low  justice  within  the  territories  of  the  different  states.  (Abre'ge, 
p.  160.)  The  other  period  is  at  the  extinction  of  the  emperors  of  the 
families  of  Luxemburg  and  Bavaria,  A.D.  1437.  According  to  the  same 
author,  the  imperial  prerogatives  at  that  time  were  the  right  of  conferring 
all  dignities  and  titles,  except  the  privilege  of  being  a  state  of  the  empire. 
The  right  of  preces  primaries,  or  of  appointing  once  during  their  reign  a 
dignitary  in  each  chapter  or  religious  house.  The  right  of  granting  dispen- 
sations with  respect  to  the  age  of  majority.  The  right  of  erecting  cities, 
and  of  conferring  the  privilege  of  coining  money.  The  right  of  calling  the 
meetings  of  the  diet  and  of  presiding  in  them.  (Abrdge*,  etc.,  p.  507.) 
It  were  easy  to  show  that  Mr.  Pfeffel  is  well  founded  in  all  these  assertions, 
and  confirm  them  by  the  testimony  of  the  most  respectable  authors.  In 
the  one  period  the  emperors  appear  as  mighty  sovereigns  with  extensive 
prerogatives  ;  in  the  other,  as  the  heads  of  a  confederacy  with  very  limited 
powers. 

The  revenues  of  the  emperors  decreased  still  more  than  their  authority. 
The  early  emperors,  and  particularly  those  of  the  Saxon  line,  besides  their 
great  patrimonial  or  hereditary  territories,  possessed  an  extensive  domain 
both  in  Italy  and  Germany,  which  belonged  to  them  as  emperors.  Italy 
belonged  to  the  emperors  as  their  proper  kingdom,  and  the  revenues  which 
they  drew  from  it  were  very  considerable.  The  first  alienations  of  the 
imperial  revenue  were  made  in  that  country.  The  Italian  cities,  having 
acquired  wealth,  and  aspiring  at  independence,  purchased  their  liberty  from 
different  emperors,  as  I  have  observed,  Note  XV.  The  sums  which  they 
paid,  and  the  emperors  with  whom  they  concluded  these  bargains,  are  men- 
tioned by  Gasp.  Klockius  de  JSrario,  Norimb.,  1671,  p.  85,  etc.  Charles  IV. 
and  his  son  Wenceslaus  dissipated  all  that  remained  of  the  Italian 
branch  of  the  domain.  The  German  domain  lay  chiefly  upon  the  banks 
of  the  Rhine,  and  was  under  the  government  of  the  counts  palatine.  It  is 
not  easy  to  mark  out  the  boundaries  or  to  estimate  the  value  of  this  ancient 
domain,  which  has  been  so  long  incorporated  with  the  territories  of  different 
princes.  Some  hints  with  respect  to  it  may  be  found  in  the  glossary  of 
Speidelius,  which  he  has  entitled  Speculum  Juridico-Philologico-Politico- 
Historicum  Observationum,  etc.,  Norimb.,  1673,  voL  L  pp.  679,  1045. 
A  more  full  account  of  it  is  given  by  Klockius  de  JSrario,  p.  84.  Besides 
this,  the  emperors  possessed  considerable  districts  of  land  lying  intermixed 
with  the  estates  of  the  dukes  and  barons.  They  were  accustomed  to  visit 
these  frequently,  and  drew  from  their  vassals  in  each  what  was  sufficient  to 
support  their  court  during  the  time  of  their  residence  among  them.  (An- 
nalistse,  ap.  Struv.,  torn.  i.  p.  611.)  A  great  part  of  these  detached  posses- 
sions was  seized  by  the  nobles  during  the  long  interregnum,  or  during  the 
wars  occasioned  by  the  contests  between  the  emperors  and  the  court  of 
Rome.  At  the  same  time  that  such  encroachments  were  made  on  the  filed 


282  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTEATIONS.          [NOTE  XLII. 

or  territorial  property  of  the  emperors,  they  were  robbed  almost  entirely  of 
their  casual  revenues,  the  princes  and  barons  appropriating  to  themselves 
taxes  and  duties  of  every  kind,  which  had  usually  been  paid  to  them. 
(Pfeffel,  Abre'ge',  p.  374.)  The  profuse  and  inconsiderate  ambition  of 
Charles  IV.  squandered  whatever  remained  of  the  imperial  revenues  after 
so  many  defalcations.  He,  in  the  year  1376,  in  order  to  prevail  with  the 
electors  to  choose  his  son  Wenceslaus  king  of  the  Romans,  promised  each  of 
them  a  hundred  thousand  crowns.  But  being  unable  to  pay  so  large  a  sum, 
and  eager  to  secure  the  election  to  his  son,  he  alienated  to  the  three  eccle- 
siastical electors,  and  to  the  count  palatine,  such  countries  as  still  belonged 
to  the  imperial  domain  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  and  likewise  made  over 
to  them  all  the  taxes  and  tolls  then  levied  by  the  emperors  in  that  district. 
Trithemius,  and  the  author  of  the  Chronicle  of  Magdeburg,  enumerate  the 
territories  and  the  taxes  which  were  thus  alienated,  and  represent  this  as 
the  last  and  fatal  blow  to  the  imperial  authority.  (Struv.,  Corp.,  vol.  i. 
p.  437.)  From  that  period  the  shreds  of  the  ancient  revenues  possessed  by 
the  emperors  have  been  so  inconsiderable  that,  in  the  opinion  of  Speidelius, 
all  that  they  yield  would  be  so  far  from  defraying  the  expense  of  support- 
ing their  household  that  they  would  not  pay  the  charge  of  maintaining  the 
posts  established  in  the  empire.  (Speidelii  Speculum,  etc.,  vol.  i.  p.  680.) 
These  funds,  inconsiderable  as  they  were,  continued  to  decrease.  Granvelle, 
the  minister  of  Charles  V.,  asserted  in  the  year  1546,  in  presence  of 
several  of  the  German  princes,  that  his  master  drew  no  money  at  all  from 
the  empire.  (Sleid.,  History  of  the  Reformation,  Lond.,  1689,  p.  372.) 
The  same  is  the  case  at  present.  (Traits'  du  Droit  publique  de  1'Empire, 
par  M.  le  Coq  de  Villeray,  p.  55.)  From  the  reign  of  Charles  IV.,  whom 
Maximilian  called  the  "  pest  of  the  empire,"  the  emperors  have  depended 
entirely  on  their  hereditary  dominions  as  the  chief  and  almost  the  only 
source  of  their  power,  and  even  of  their  subsistence. 

2.  The  ancient  mode  of  electing  the  emperors,  and  the  various  changes 
which  it  underwent,  require  some  illustration.  The  imperial  crown  was 
originally  attained  by  election,  as  well  as  those  of  most  monarchies  in 
Europe.  An  opinion  long  prevailed  among  the  antiquaries  and  public 
lawyers  of  Germany  that  the  right  of  choosing  the  emperors  was  vested  in 
the  archbishops  of  Mentz,  Cologne,  and  Treves,  the  king  of  Bohemia,  the 
duke  of  Saxony,  the  marquis  of  Brandenburg,  and  the  count  palatine  of  the 
Rhine,  by  an  edict  of  Otho  III.,  confirmed  by  Gregory  V.  about  the  year 
!J96.  But  the  whole  tenor  of  history  contradicts  this  opinion.  It  appears 
that  from  the  earliest  period  in  the  history  of  Germany  the  person  who  was 
to  reign  over  all  was  elected  by  the  suffrage  of  all.  Thus,  Conrad  I.  was 
elected  by  all  the  people  of  the  Franks,  say  some  annalists ;  by  all  the 
princes  and  chief  men,  say  others ;  by  all  the  nations,  say  others.  (See 
their  words,  Struv.,  Corp.,  p.  211 ;  Conringius  de  German.  Imper.  Repub. 
Acroamata  Sex.,  Ebroduni,  1654,  p.  103.)  In  the  year  1024,  posterior  to 
the  supposed  regulations  of  Otho  III.,  Conrad  II.  was  elected  by  all  the 
chief  men,  and  his  election  was  approved  and  confirmed  by  the  people. 
(Struv.,  Corp.,  p.  284.)  At  the  election  of  Lotharius  II.,  A.D.  1125,  sixty 
thousand  persons  of  all  ranks  were  present.  He  was  named  by  the  chief 
men,  and  their  nomination  was  approved  by  the  people.  (Struv.,  Corp., 
p.  357.)  The  first  author  who  mentions  the  seven  electors  is  Martinus 


NOTE  xi.ii.]          PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  283 

Polonus,  who  flourished  in  the  reign  of  Frederic  II.,  which  ended  A.D. 
1250.  We  find  that  in  all  the  ancient  elections  to  which  I  have  referred 
the  princes  of  the  greatest  power  and  authority  were  allowed  by  their  coun- 
trymen to  name  the  person  whom  they  wished  to  appoint  emperor,  and  the 
people  approved  or  disapproved  of  their  nomination.  This  privilege  of 
voting  first  is  called  by  the  German  lawyers  the  right  of  prcetaocation. 
(PfefFel,  Abre'ge',  p.  316.)  This  was  the  first  origin  of  the  exclusive  right 
which  the  electors  acquired.  The  electors  possessed  the  most  extensive 
territories  of  any  princes  in  the  empire ;  all  the  great  offices  of  the  state 
were  in  their  hands  by  hereditary  right ;  as  soon  as  they  obtained  or 
engrossed  so  much  influence  in  the  election  as  to  be  allowed  the  right  of 
prsetaxation,  it  was  vain  to  oppose  their  will,  and  it  even  became  unneces- 
sary for  the  inferior  ecclesiastics  and  barons  to  attend,  when  they  had  no 
other  function  but  that  of  confirming  the  deed  of  these  more  powerful 
princes  by  their  assent.  During  times  of  turbulence,  the  subordinate 
members  of  the  Germanic  body  could  not  resort  to  the  place  of  election 
without  a  retinue  of  armed  vassals,  the  expense  of  which  they  were  obliged 
to  defray  out  of  their  own  revenues ;  and,  finding  their  attendance  to  be 
unnecessary,  they  were  unwilling  to  waste  them  to  no  purpose.  The 
rights  of  the  seven  electors  were  supported  by  all  the  descendants  and 
allies  of  their  powerful  families,  who  shared  in  the  splendour  and  influence 
ivhich  they  enjoyed  by  this  distinguishing  privilege.  (Pfeffel,  Abrege*, 
p.  376.)  The  seven  electors  were  considered  as  the  representatives  of  all 
the  orders  which  composed  the  highest  class  of  German  nobility.  There 
were  three  archbishops,  chancellors  of  the  three  great  districts  into  which 
the  empire  was  anciently  divided,  one  king,  one  duke,  one  marquis,  and 
one  count.  All  these  circumstances  contributed  to  render  the  introduction 
of  this  considerable  innovation  into  the  constitution  of  the  Germanic  body 
extremely  easy.  Every  thing  of  importance  relating  to  this  branch  of  the 
political  state  of  the  empire  is  well  illustrated  by  Onuphrius  Panvanius, 
an  Augustinian  monk  of  Verona,  who  lived  in  the  reign  of  Charles  V. 
His  treatise,  if  we  make  some  allowance  for  that  partiality  which  he 
expresses  in  favour  of  the  powers  which  the  popes  claimed  in  the  empire, 
has  the  merit  of  being  one  of  the  first  works  in  which  a  controverted  point 
in  history  is  examined  with  critical  precision  and  with  a  proper  atten- 
tion to  that  evidence  which  is  derived  from  records  or  the  testimony  of 
contemporary  historians.  It  is  inserted  by  Goldastus  in  his  Politica 
Imperialia,  p.  2. 

As  the  electors  have  engrossed  the  sole  right  of  choosing  the  emperors, 
they  have  assumed  likewise  that  of  deposing  them.  This  high  power  the 
electors  have  not  only  presumed  to  claim,  but  have  ventured,  in  more  than 
one  instance,  to  exercise.  In  the  year  1298  a  part  of  the  electors  deposed 
Adolphus  of  Nassau  and  substituted  Albert  of  Austria  in  his  place.  The 
reasons  on  which  they  found  their  sentence  show  that  this  deed  flowec1 
from  factious,  not  from  public-spirited,  motives.  (Struv.,  Corp.,  vol.  i. 
p.  540.)  In  the  first  year  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  electors  deposed 
Wenceslaus  and  placed  the  imperial  crown  on  the  head  of  Rupert,  elector 
palatine.  The  act  of  deposition  is  still  extant.  (Goldasti  Constit.,  vol.  i 
p.  379.)  It  is  pronounced  in  the  name  and  by  the  authority  of  the 
doctors,  and  confirmed  by  several  prelates  and  barons  of  the  empire, 


284  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.          [NOTE  xm. 

who  were  present.      These  exertions  of  the  electoral  power  demonstrate 
that  the  imperial  authority  was  sunk  very  low. 

The  other  privileges  of  the  electors,  and  the  rights  of  the  electoral 
college,  are  explained  by  the  writers  on  the  public  law  in  Germany. 

3.  With  respect  to  the  diets,  or  general  assemblies  of  the  empire,  it 
would  be  necessary,  if  my  object  were  to  write  a  particular  history  of 
Germany,  to  enter  into  a  minute  detail  concerning  the  forms  of  assembling 
them,  the  persons  who  have  a  right  to   be   present,  their  division  into 
several  colleges  or   benches,  the  objects  of  their  deliberation,  the  mode 
in  which  they  carry    on  their  debates  or  give  their   suffrages,  and  the 
authority  of  their  decrees   or    recesses.     But,   as    my   only   object  is  to 
give  the  outlines  of  the   constitution  of  the  German  empire,  it  will  be 
sufficient  to  observe  that  originally  the  diets  of  the  empire  were  exactly 
the  same  with  the  assemblies  of  March  and  of  May,  held  by  the  kings 
of  France.     They  met  at  least  once  a  year.     Every  freeman  had  a  right 
to  be  present.      They  were  assemblies   in  which  a  monarch  deliberated 
with  his  subjects  concerning  their  common  interest.     (Arumseus  de  Comitiis 
Rom.  German.  Imperil,  4to,  Jenae,  1660,  cap.  7,  no.  20,  etc.)     But  when 
the  princes,  dignified  ecclesiastics,  and  barons  acquired  territorial  and  in- 
dependent jurisdiction,  the  diet  became  an  assembly  of  the  separate  states, 
which  formed  the  confederacy  of  which  the  emperor  was  head.     While  the 
constitution  of  the  empire  remained  in  its  primitive  form,  attendance  on 
the  diets  was  a  duty,  like  the  other  services  due  from  feudal  subjects  to 
their  sovereign,  which  the  members  were  bound  to  perform  in  person  ; 
and  if  any  member  who  had  a  right  to  be  present  in  the  diet  neglected 
to  attend  in  person,  he  not  only  lost  his  vote,  but  was  liable  to  a  heavy 
penalty.      (Arumaeus  de  Comit.,  c.  5,  no.  40.)     Whereas,  from  the  time 
that  the  members  of  the  diet  became  independent  states,  the  right  of 
suffrage  was  annexed  to  the  territory  or  dignity,  not  to  the  person.     The 
members,  if  they  could  not,  or  would  not,   attend  in  person,  might  send 
their  deputies,  as  princes  send  ambassadors,  and   they  were  entitled  to 
exercise  all  the  rights  belonging  to  their  constituents.     (Ibid.,  no.  42, 
46,  49.)     By  degrees,  and  upon  the  same  principle  of  considering  the  diet 
as  an  assembly  of  independent  states,  in  which  each  confederate  had  the 
right  of  suffrage,  if  any  member  possessed  more  than  one  of  those  states  or 
characters  which  entitle  to  a  seat  in  the  diet,  he  was  allowed  a  proportional 
number  of  suffrages.      (Pfeffel,  Abre'ge,  p.  622.)     From  the   same   cause, 
the  imperial  cities,  as  soon  as  they  became  free  and  acquired  supreme  and 
independent  jurisdiction  within  their  own  territories,  were   received  as 
members  of  the  diet.     The  powers  of  the  diet  extend  to  every  thing  relative 
to  the  common  concern  of  the  Germanic  body  or  that  can  interest  or  affect 
it  as  a  confederacy.    The  diet  takes  no  cognizance  of  the  interior  administra- 
tion in  the  different  states,  unless  that  happens  to  disturb  or  threaten  the 
general  safety. 

4.  With  respect  to  the  imperial  chamber,  the  jurisdiction  of  which  has 
been  the  great  source  of  order  and  tranquillity  in  Germany,  it  is  necessary 
to  observe  that  this  court  was  instituted  in  order  to  put  an  end  to  the 
calamities  occasioned  by  private  wars  in  Germany.     I  have  already  traced 
the  rise  and  progress  of  this  practice,  and  pointed  out  its  pernicious  effects 
as  fully  as  their  extensive  influence  during  the  Middle  Ages  required.     In 


WOTE  XLII.]          PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  285 

Germany,  private  wars  seem  to  have  been  more  frequent  and  productive  of 
worse  consequences  than  in  the  other  countries  of  Europe.  There  are 
obvious  reasons  for  this.  The  nobility  of  Germany  were  extremely  numer- 
ous, and  the  causes  of  their  dissension  multiplied  in  proportion.  The 
territorial  jurisdiction  which  the  German  nobles  acquired  was  more  com- 
plete than  that  possessed  by  their  order  in  other  nations.  They  became, 
in  reality,  independent  powers,  and  they  claimed  all  the  privileges  of  that 
character.  The  long  interregnum  from  A.D.  1256  to  A.D.  1273  accus- 
tomed them  to  an  uncontrolled  license,  and  led  them  to  forget  that  subor- 
dination which  is  necessary  in  order  to  maintain  public  tranquillity.  At  the 
time  when  the  other  monarchs  of  Europe  began  to  acquire  such  an  increase 
of  power  and  revenues  as  added  new  vigour  to  their  government,  the  autho- 
rity and  revenues  of  the  emperors  continued  gradually  to  decline.  The 
diets  of  the  empire,  which  alone  had  authority  to  judge  between  such 
mighty  barons,  and  power  to  enforce  its  decisions,  met  very  seldom. 
(Conring.,  Acroamata,  p.  234.)  The  diets,  when  they  did  assemble,  were 
often  composed  of  several  thousand  members  (Chronic.  Constant.,  ap. 
Struv.,  Corp.,  i.  546),  and  were  tumultuary  assemblies,  ill  qualified  to 
decide  concerning  any  question  of  right.  The  session  of  the  diet  con- 
tinued only  two  or  three  days  (Pfeffel,  Abre'ge,  p.  244)  ;  so  that  they  had 
no  time  to  hear  or  discuss  any  cause  that  was  in  the  smallest  degree 
intricate.  Thus  Germany  was  left,  in  some  measure,  without  any  court 
of  judicature  capable  of  deciding  the  contests  between  its  more  powerful 
members,  or  of  repressing  the  evils  occasioned  by  their  private  wars. 

All  the  expedients  which  were  employed  in  other  countries  of  Europe 
in  order  to  restrain  this  practice,  and  which  I  have  described,  Note  XXL, 
were  tried  in  Germany  with  little  effect.  The  confederacies  of  the  nobles 
and  of  the  cities,  and  the  division  of  Germany  into  various  circles,  which 
I  mentioned  in  that  note,  were  found  likewise  insufficient.  As  a  last 
remedy,  the  Germans  had  recourse  to  arbiters,  whom  they  called  austregce. 
The  barons  and  states  in  different  parts  of  Germany  joined  in  conven- 
tions, by  which  they  bound  themselves  to  refer  all  controversies  that 
might  arise  between  them  to  the  determination  of  austregce,  and  to  submit 
to  their  sentences  as  final  These  arbiters  are  named  sometimes  in  the 
treaty  of  convention,  an  instance  of  which  occurs  in  Ludewig,  Reliquiae 
Manuscr.  omnis  Mvi,  vol.  ii.  p.  212  ;  sometimes  they  were  chosen  by 
mutual  consent  upon  occasion  of  any  contest  that  arose  ;  sometimes  they 
were  appointed  by  neutral  persons ;  and  sometimes  the  choice  was  left  to 
be  decided  by  lot.  (Datt.,  de  Pace  Publica  Imperii,  lib.  i.  cap.  27,  no.  60, 
etc.;  Speidelius,  Speculum,  etc.,  voc.  Austmg.,  p.  95.)  Upon  the  intro- 
duction of  this  practice,  the  public  tribunals  of  justice  became  in  a  great 
measure  useless,  and  were  almost  entirely  deserted. 

In  order  to  re-establish  the  authority  of  government,  Maximilian  I. 
instituted  the  imperial  chamber  at  the  period  which  I  have  mentioned. 
This  tribunal  consisted  originally  of  a  president,  who  was  always  a  noble- 
man of  the  n  st  order,  and  of  sixteen  judges.  The  president  was  appointed 
by  the  emperor,  and  the  judges  partly  by  him,  and  partly  by  the  states, 
according  to  forms  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  describe.  A  sum  was 
imposed,  with  their  own  consent,  on  the  states  of  the  empire,  for  paying 
the  salaries  of  the  judges  and  officers  in  this  court  The  imperial 


286  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTEATIONS.        [NOTE  xun. 

chamber  was  established  first  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main.  During  the  reign 
of  Charles  V.  it  was  removed  to  Spires,  and  continued  in  that  city  above 
a  century  and  a  half.  It  is  now  fixed  at  "Wetzlar.  This  court  takes 
cognizance  of  all  questions  concerning  civil  right  between  the  states  of 
the  empire,  and  passes  judgment  in  the  last  resort,  and  without  appeal. 
To  it  belongs  likewise  the  privilege  of  judging  in  criminal  causes,  which 
may  be  considered  as  connected  with  the  preservation  of  the  public  peace. 
Pfeffel,  Abrege",  p.  560. 

All  causes  relating  to  points  of  feudal  right  or  jurisdiction,  together 
with  such  as  respect  the  territories  which  hold  of  the  empire  in  Italy, 
belong  properly  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  aulic  council.  This  tribunal 
was  formed  upon  the  model  of  the  ancient  court  of  the  palace  instituted 
by  the  emperors  of  Germany.  It  depended  not  upon  the  states  of  the 
empire,  but  upon  the  emperor,  he  having  the  right  of  appointing  at 
pleasure  all  the  judges  of  whom  it  is  composed.  Maximilian,  in  order 
to  procure  some  compensation  for  the  diminution  of  his  authority  by  the 
powers  vested  in  the  imperial  chamber,  prevailed  on  the  diet,  A.D.  1512, 
to  give  its  consent  to  the  establishment  of  the  aulic  council.  Since  that 
time  it  has  been  a  great  object  of  policy  in  the  court  of  Vienna  to  extend 
the  jurisdiction  and  support  the  authority  of  the  aulic  council,  and  to 
circumscribe  and  weaken  those  of  the  imperial  chamber.  The  tedious 
forms  and  dilatory  proceedings  of  the  imperial  chamber  have  furnished 
the  emperors  with  pretexts  for  doing  so.  "  Lites  Spirse,"  according  to 
the  witticism  of  a  German  lawyer,  "  spirant,  sed  nunquam  expirant." 
Such  delays  are  unavoidable  in  a  court  composed  of  members  named  by 
many  different  states  jealous  of  each  other.  Whereas  the  judges  of  the 
;iulic  council,  depending  upon  one  master,  and  being  responsible  to  him 
filone,  are  more  vigorous  and  decisive.  Puffendorf,  De  Statu  Imper. 
German.,  cap.  y.  §  20  ;  Pfeffel,  Abrege',  p.  581. 

Nora  XLIII.— Sect.  III.  p.  177. 

The  description  which  I  have  given  of  the  Turkish  government  is  con- 
formable to  the  accounts  of  the  most  intelligent  travellers  who  have  visited 
that  empire.  The  Count  de  Marsigli,  in  his  treatise  concerning  the  mili- 
tary state  of  the  Turkish  empire,  ch.  vi,  and  the  author  of  Observations 
on  the  Religion,  Laws,  Government,  and  Mann-  rs  of  the  Turks,  published 
at  London,  1768,  vol.  i.  p.  81,  differ  from  other  writers  who  have  described 
the  political  constitution  of  that  powerful  monarchy.  As  they  had  oppor- 
tunity, during  their  long  residence  in  Turkey,  to  observe  the  order  and 
justice  conspicuous  in  several  departments  of  administration,  they  seem 
unwilling  to  admit  that  it  should  be  denominated  a  despotism.  But  when 
the  form  of  government  in  any  country  is  represented  to  be  despotic,  this 
does  not  suppose  that  the  power  of  the  monarch  is  continually  exerted  in 
acts  of  violence,  injustice,  and  cruelty.  Under  political  constitutions  of 
every  species,  unless  when  some  frantic  tyrant  happens  to  hold  the  sceptre, 
the  ordinary  administration  of  government  must  be  conformable  to  the 
principles  of  justice,  and,  if  not  active  in  promoting  the  welfare  of  the 
people,  cannot  certainly  have  their  destruction  for  its  object.  A  state 
in  which  the  sovereign  possesses  the  absolute  command  of  a  vast  military 


NOTB  JLLUI.]        PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTEATIONS.  287 

force,  together  with  the  disposal  of  an  extensive  revenue,  in  which  the 
people  have  no  privileges  and  no  part  either  immediate  or  remote  in  legis- 
lation, in  which  there  is  no  body  of  hereditary  nobility,  jealous  of  their 
own  rights  and  distinctions,  to  stand  as  an  intermediate  order  between  the 
prince  and  the  people,  cannot  be  distinguished  by  any  name  but  that  of  a 
despotism.  The  restraints,  however,  which  I  have  mentioned,  arising  from 
the  capiculy  and  from  religion,  are  powerful.  But  they  are  not  such  as 
change  the  nature  or  denomination  of  the  government.  When  a  despotic 
prince  employs  an  armed  force  to  support  his  authority,  he  commits  the 
supreme  power  to  their  hands.  The  praetorian  bands  in  Rome  dethroned, 
murdered,  and  exalted  their  princes  in  the  same  waiiion  manner  with  the 
soldiery  of  the  Porte  at  Constantinople.  But,  notwithstanding  this,  the 
Roman  emperors  have  been  considered  by  all  political  writers  as  possessing 
despotic  powers. 

The  author  of  Observations  on  the  Religion,  Laws,  Government,  and 
Manners  of  the  Turks,  in  a  preface  to  the  second  edition  of  his  work,  hath 
made  some  remarks  on  what  ia  contained  in  this  note  and  in  that  part  of 
the  text  to  which  it  refers.  It  is  with  diffidence  I  set  my  opinion  in 
opposition  to  that  of  a  person  who  has  observed  the  government  of  the 
Turks  with  attention  and  has  described  it  with  abilities.  But,  after  a 
careful  review  of  the  subject,  to  me  the  Turkish  government  still  appears 
of  such  a  species  as  can  be  ranged  in  no  class  but  that  to  which  political 
writers  have  given  the  name  of  despotism.  There  is  not  in  Turkey  any 
constitutional  restraint  upon  the  will  of  the  sovereign,  or  any  barrier  to 
circumscribe  the  exercise  of  his  power,  but  the  two  which  I  have  men- 
tioned :  one  afforded  by  religion,  the  principle  upon  which  the  authority 
of  the  sultan  is  founded,  the  other  by  the  army,  the  instrument  which 
he  must  employ  to  maintain  his  power.  The  author  represents  the 
iilema,  or  body  of  the  law,  as  an  intermediate  order  between  the 
monarch  and  the  people.  (Pref.,  p.  30.)  But  whatever  restraint  the 
authority  of  the  ulema  may  impose  upon  the  sovereign  is  derived  from 
religion.  The  moulahs  out  of  whom  the  mufti  and  other  chief  officers  of 
the  law  must  be  chosen,  are  ecclesiastics.  It  is  as  interpreters  of  the 
Koran  or  divine  will  that  they  are  objects  of  veneration.  The  check,  then, 
which  they  give  to  the  exercise  of  arbitrary  power  is  not  different  from  one 
of  those  of  which  I  took  notice.  Indeed,  this  restraint  cannot  be  very 
considerable.  The  mufti,  who  is  the  head  of  the  order,  as  well  as  every 
inferior  officer  of  law,  is  named  by  the  sultan,  and  is  removable  at  his 
pleasure.  The  straii^e  means  employed  by  the  ulema  in  1 746  to  obtain 
the  dismission  of  a  minister  whom  they  hated  is  a  manifest  proof  that  they 
possess  but  little  constitutional  authority  which  can  serve  as  a  restraint 
upon  the  will  of  the  sovereign.  (Observat.,  p.  92  of  2d  edit.)  If  the 
author's  idea  be  just,  it  is  astonishing  that  the  body  of  the  law  should  have 
no  method  of  remonstrating  against  the  errors  of  administration  but  by 
setting  fire  to  the  capital. 

The  author  seems  to  consider  the  capiculy,  or  soldiery  of  the  Porte, 
neither  as  formidable  instruments  of  the  sultan's  power  nor  as  any  restraint 
upon  the  exercise  of  it.  His  reasons  for  this  opinion  are  that  the  number 
of  the  capiculy  is  small  in  proportion  to  the  other  troops  which  compose 
the  Turkish  armies,  and  that  in  time  of  peace  they  are  undisciplined. 


288  PEOOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.         [NOTE  XLIV. 

(Pref.,  2d  edit.,  p.  23,  etc.)  But  the  troops  stationed  in  a  capital,  though 
their  number  be  not  great,  are  always  masters  of  the  sovereign's  person  and 
power.  The  praetorian  bands  bore  no  proportion  to  the  legionary  troops  in 
the  frontier  provinces.  The  soldiery  of  the  Porte  are  more  numerous,  and 
must  possess  power  of  the  same  kind,  and  be  equally  formidable,  sometimes 
to  the  sovereign,  and  oftener  to  the  people.  However  much  the  discipline 
of  the  janizaries  may  be  neglected  at  present,  it  certainly  was  not  so  in  that 
age  to  which  alone  my  description  of  the  Turkish  government  applies. 
The  author  observes  (Pref.,  p.  29)  that  the  janizaries  never  deposed  any 
sultan  of  themselves,  but  that  some  form  of  law,  true  or  false,  has  been 
observed,  and  that  either  the  mufti,  or  some  other  minister  of  religion,  has 
announced  to  the  unhappy  prince  the  law  which  renders  him  unworthy  of 
the  throne.  (Observ.,  p.  102.)  This  will  always  happen.  In  every 
revolution,  though  brought  about  by  military  power,  the  deeds  of  the  sol- 
diery must  be  confirmed  and  carried  into  execution  with  the  civil  and  reli- 
gious formalities  peculiar  to  the  constitution. 

This  addition  to  the  note  may  serve  as  a  further  illustration  of  my  own 
sentiments,  but  is  not  made  with  an  intention  of  entering  into  any  controversy 
with  the  author  of  Observations,  etc.,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  the 
obliging  terms  in  which  he  has  expressed  his  remarks  upon  what  I  had 
advanced.  Happy  were  it  for  such  as  ventured  to  communicate  their 
opinions  to  the  world,  if  every  animadversion  upon  them  were  conveyed 
with  the  same  candid  and  liberal  spirit.  In  one  particular,  however,  he 
seems  to  have  misapprehended  what  I  meant.  (Pref.,  p.  17.)  I  certainly 
did  not  mention  his  or  Count  Marsigli's  long  residence  in  Turkey  as  a  cir- 
cumstance which  should  detract  from  the  weight  of  their  authority.  I 
took  notice  of  it  in  justice  to  my  readers,  that  they  might  receive  my 
opinion  with  distrust,  as  it  differed  from  that  of  persons  whose  means  of 
information  were  so  far  superior  to  mine. 

NOTE:  XLIV.— Sect  III.  p.  178. 

The  institution,  the  discipline,  and  privileges  of  the  janizaries  are 
described  by  all  the  authors  who  give  any  account  of  the  Turkish  govern- 
ment. The  manner  in  which  enthusiasm  was  employed  in  order  to  inspire 
them  with  courage  is  thus  related  by  Prince  Cantemir  :  "  When  Amurath  I. 
had  formed  them  into  a  body,  he  sent  them  to  Haji  Bektash,  a  Turkish 
saint,  famous  for  his  miracles  and  prophecies,  desiring  him  to  bestow  on 
them  a  banner,  to  pray  God  for  their  success,  and  to  give  them  a  name. 
The  saint,  when  they  appeared  in  his  presence,  put  the  sleeve  of  his  gown 
upon  one  of  their  heads,  and  said,  Let  them  be  called  Yengicheri.  Let 
their  countenance  be  ever  bright,  their  hands  victorious,  their  swords  keen  ; 
let  their  spear  always  hang  over  the  heads  of  their  enemies,  and  wherever 
they  go,  may  they  return  with  a  shining  face."  (History  of  the  Ottoman 
Empire,  p.  38.)  The  number  of  janizaries  at  the  first  institution  of  the 
body  was  not  considerable.  Under  Solyman,  in  the  year  1521,  they 
amounted  to  twelve  thousand.  Since  that  time  their  number  has 
greatly  increased.  (Marsigli,  Etat  etc.,  ch.  xvi.  p.  68.)  Though  Soly- 
man possessed  such  abilities  and  authority  as  to  restrain  this  formidable 
body  within  the  bounds  of  obedience,  yet  its  tendency  to  limit  the  power 


NOTE  XLV.]          PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

of  the  sultans  was,  even  in  that  age,  foreseen  by  sagacious  observers. 
Nicolas  Daulphinois,  who  accompanied  M.  d'Aramon,  ambassador  from 
Henry  II.  of  France  to  Solyman,  published  an  account  of  his  travels,  in 
which  he  describes  and  celebrates  the  discipline  of  the  janizaries,  but  at 
the  same  time  predicts  that  they  would  one  day  become  formidable  to  their 
masters,  and  act  the  same  part  at  Constantinople  as  the  praetorian  bands  had 
done  at  Rome.  Collection  of  Voyages  from  the  Earl  of  Oxford's  Library, 
voL  i.  p.  699. 

NOTE  XLV.— Sect  III.  p.  168. 

Solyman  the  Magnificent,  to  whom  the  Turkish  historians  have  given  the 
surname  of  canuni,  or  insti tutor  of  rules,  first  brought  the  finances  and 
military  establishment  of  the  Turkish  empire  into  a  regular  form.  He 
divided  the  military  force  into  the  capiculy,  or  soldiery  of  the  Porte, 
which  was  properly  the  standing  army,  and  serrataculy,  or  soldiers 
appointed  to  guard  the  frontiers.  The  chief  strength  of  the  latter 
consisted  of  those  who  held  timariots  and  ziams.  These  were  portions 
of  land  granted  to  certain  persons  for  life,  in  much  the  same  manner  as 
the  military  fiefs  among  the  nations  of  Europe,  in  return  for  which 
military  service  was  performed.  Solyman,  in  his  Canun-Nam£,  or  book 
of  regulations,  fixed  with  great  accuracy  the  extent  of  these  lands  in  each 
province  of  his  empire,  appointed  the  precise  number  of  soldiers  each 
person  who  held  a  timariot  or  a  ziam  should  bring  into  the  field,  and 
established  the  pay  which  they  should  receive  while  engaged  in  service. 
Count  Marsigli  and  Sir  Paul  Rycaut  have  given  extracts  from  this  book 
of  regulations,  and  it  appears  that  the  ordinary  establishment  of  the 
Turkish  army  exceeded  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men.  When  these 
were  added  to  the  soldiery  of  the  Porte,  they  formed  a  military  power 
greatly  superior  to  what  any  Christian  state  could  command  in  the 
sixteenth  century.  (Marsigli,  Etat  Militaire,  etc.,  p.  136  ;  Rycaut's  State 
of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  book  iii.  ch.  ii.)  As  Solyman,  during  his  active 
reign,  was  engaged  so  constantly  in  war,  that  his  troops  were  always  in 
the  field,  the  serrataculy  became  almost  equal  to  the  janizaries  themselves 
in  discipline  and  valour. 

It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that  the  authors  of  the  sixteenth  century 
should  represent  the  Turks  as  far  superior  to  the  Christians  both  in  the 
knowledge  and  in  the  practice  of  the  art  of  war.  Quicciardini  informs 
us  that  the  Italians  learned  the  art  of  fortifying  towns  from  the  Turks. 
(Histor.,  lib.  xv.  p.  266.)  Busbequius,  who  was  ambassador  from  the 
emperor  Ferdinand  to  Solyman,  and  who  had  opportunity  to  observe  the 
state  both  of  the  Christian  and  Turkish  armies,  published  a  discourse 
concerning  the  best  manner  of  carrying  on  war  against  the  Turks,  in 
which  he  points  out  at  great  length  the  immense  advantages  which  the 
infidels  possessed  with  respect  to  discipline  and  military  improvements 
of  every  kind.  (Busbequii  Opera,  edit.  Elzevir,  p.  393,  etc.)  The 
testimony  of  other  authors  might  be  added,  if  the  matter  were  in  any 
degree  doubtful. 

Before  I  conclude  these  Proofs  and  Illustrations,  I  ought  to  explain  the 
reason  of  two  omissions  in  them  :  one  of  which  it  is  necessary  to  mention 
VOL.  T.  V 


290  PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  [NOTE  XLV. 

on  my  own  account,  the  other  to  obviate  an  objection  to  this  part  of  the 
work. 

In  all  my  inquiries  and  disquisitions  concerning  the  progress  of  govern- 
ment, manners,  literature,  and  commerce  during  the  Middle  Ages,  as  well 
as  in  my  delineations  of  the  political  constitution  of  the  different  states 
of  Europe  at  the  opening  of  the  sixteenth  century,  I  have  not  once 
mentioned  M.  de  Voltaire,  who  in  his  Essai  sur  I'Histoire  generale  has 
reviewed  the  same  period,  and  has  treated  of  all  these  subjects.  This 
does  not  proceed  from  an  inattention  to  the  works  of  that  extraordinary 
man,  whose  genius,  no  less  enterprising  than  universal,  has  attempted 
almost  eveiy  different  species  of  literary  composition.  In  many  of  these 
he  excels.  In  all,  if  he  had  left  religion  untouched,  he  is  instructive  and 
agreeable.  But,  as  he  seldom  imitates  the  example  of  modern  historians 
in  citing  the  authors  from  whom  they  derived  their  information,  I  could 
not  with  propriety  appeal  to  his  authority  in  confirmation  of  any  doubtful 
or  unknown  fact.  I  have  often,  however,  followed  him  as  my  guide  in 
these  researches  ;  and  he  has  not  only  pointed  out  the  facts  with  respect 
to  which  it  was  of  importance  to  inquire,  but  the  conclusions  which  it 
was  proper  to  draw  from  them.  If  he  had  at  the  same  time  mentioned 
the  books  which  relate  these  particulars,  a  great  part  of  my  labour  would 
have  been  unnecessary,  and  many  of  his  readers  who  now  consider  him 
only  as  an  entertaining  and  lively  writer  would  find  that  he  is  a  learned 
and  well-informed  historian. 

As  to  the  other  omission,  every  intelligent  reader  must  have  observed 
that  I  have  not  entered,  either  in  the  historical  part  of  this  volume  or  in 
the  Proofs  and  Illustrations,  into  the  same  detail  with  respect  to  the  ancient 
laws  and  customs  of  the  British  kingdoms  as  concerning  those  of  the  other 
European  nations.  As  the  capital  facts  with  regard  to  the  progress  of 
government  and  manners  in  their  own  country  are  known  to  most  of  my 
readers,  such  a  detail  appeared  to  me  to  be  less  essential.  Such  facts  and 
observations,  however,  as  were  necessary  towards  completing  my  design  in 
this  part  of  the  work,  I  have  mentioned  under  the  different  articles  which 
are  the  subjects  of  my  disquisitions.  The  state  of  government  in  all  the 
nations  of  Europe  having  been  nearly  the  same  during  several  ages,  nothing 
can  tend  more  to  illustrate  the  progress  of  the  English  constitution  than  a 
careful  inquiry  into  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  kingdoms  on  the  Continent. 
This  source  of  information  has  been  too  much  neglected  by  the  English 
antiquaries  and  lawyers.  Filled  with  admiration  of  that  happy  constitution 
now  established  in  Great  Britain,  they  have  been  more  attentive  to  its 
forms  and  principles  than  to  the  condition  and  ideas  of  remote  times,  which 
in  almost  every  particular  differ  from  the  present.  While  engaged  in  per- 
using the  laws,  charters,  and  early  historians  of  the  Continental  kingdoms, 
I  have  often  been  led  to  think  that  an  attempt  to  illustrate  the  progress  of 
English  jurisprudence  and  policy  by  a  comparison  with  those  of  other 
kingdoms  in  a  similar  situation  would  be  of  great  utility,  and  might  throw 
much  light  on  some  points  which  are  now  obscure,  and  decide  others  which 
h;we  been  long  controverted. 


HISTORY    OF    THE    REIGN 


OF  THE 


EMPEROR  CHARLES   THE  FIFTH. 


HISTORY    OF   THE    EEIGN 


OT  THX 


EMPEROR   CHARLES    THE   FIFTH. 


BOOK    I. 


Birth  of  Charles  V. — His  Hereditary  Dominions. — Philip  and  Joanna, 
his  Parents. — Birth  of  Ferdinand,  his  Brother. — Death  of  Isabella, 
— Philip's  Attempts  to  obtain  the  Government  of  Castile, — The 
Regent  Ferdinand  marries  a  Niece  of  the  French  King  to  exclude 
Philip  and  his. Daughter. — The  Castilian  Nobility  declare  for  Philip. 
—  Philip  and  Joanna  proclaimed. — Death  of  Philip. — Incapacity  of 
Joanna. — Ferdinand  made  Regent. — His  Acquisition  of  Territory. 
— His  Death. — Education  of  Charles  V. — Cardinals  Ximenes  and 
Adrian. — Charles  acknowledged  King. — Ximeues  strengthens  the 
Royal  Power;  is  opposed  by  the  Nobles. — War  in  Navarre  and  in 
Africa. — Peace  with  France, — Charles  visits  Spain. — His  Ingrati- 
tude towards  Ximenes. — Death  of  the  Latter. — Discontent  of  the 
Castilians. — Corruption  of  the  King's  Flemish  Favourites. — Recep- 
tion of  Charles  in  Aragon. — Death  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian. — 
Charles  and  Francis  I.  Competitors  for  the  Empire. — Views  of  the 
other  Reigning  Potentates. — Assembly  of  the  Electors. — The  Crown 
offered  to  Frederic  of  Saxony. — He  declines  in  Favour  of  Charles, 
who  is  chosen. — Discontent  of  the  Spaniards. — Insurrection  in 
Valencia. — The  Cortes  of  Castile  summoned  to  meet  in  Galicia. — 
Charles  appoints  Regents,  and  embarks  for  the  Low  Countries. 

CHARLES  V.  was  born  at  Ghent  on  the  24th  day  of 
February,  in  the  year  1500.  His  father,  Philip  the 
Handsome,  archduke  of  Austria,  was  the  son  of  the 
emperor  Maximilian,  and  of  Mary,  the  only  child  of 
Charles  the  Bold,  the  last  prince  of  the  house  of  Bur- 
gundy. His  mother,  Joanna,  was  the  second  daughter 


294  EEIGN    OF    THE  [BOOK  i. 

of  Ferdinand,  king  of  Aragon,  and  of  Isabella,  queen  of 
Castile. 

A  long  train  of  fortunate  events  had  opened  the  way 
for  this  young  prince  to  the  inheritance  of  more  exten- 
sive dominions  than  any  European  monarch  since  Charle- 
magne had  possessed.  Each  of  his  ancestors  had 
acquired  kingdoms  or  provinces  towards  which  their 
prospect  of  succession  was  extremely  remote.  The 
rich  possessions  of  Mary  of  Burgundy  had  been  destined 
for  another  family,  she  having  been  contracted  by  her 
father  to  the  only  son  of  Louis  XI.  of  France ;  but  that 
capricious  monarch,  indulging  his  hatred  to  her  family, 
chose  rather  to  strip  her  of  part  of  her  territories  by 
force  than  to  secure  the  whole  by  marriage ;  and  by  this 
misconduct,  fatal  to  his  posterity,  he  threw  all  the 
Netherlands  and  Franche-Comte  into  the  hands  of  a 
rival.  Isabella,  the  daughter  of  John  II.  of  Castile,  far 
from  having  any  prospect  of  that  noble  inheritance 
which  she  transmitted  to  her  grandson,  passed  the  early 
part  of  her  life  in  obscurity  and  indigence.  But  the 
Castilians,  exasperated  against  her  brother,  Henry  IV., 
an  ill-advised  and  vicious  prince,  publicly  charged  him 
with  impotence  and  his  queen  with  adultery.  Upon  his 
demise,  rejecting  Joanna,  whom  Henry  had  uniformly, 
and  even  on  his  death-bed,  owned  to  be  his  lawful 
daughter,  and  whom  an  assembly  of  the  states  had 
acknowledged  to  be  the  heir  of  his  kingdom,  they 
obliged  her  to  retire  into  Portugal  and  placed  Isabella  on 
the  throne  of  Castile.  Ferdinand  owed  the  crown  of 
Aragon  to  the  unexpected  death  of  his  elder  brother,  and 
acquired  the  kingdoms  of  Naples  and  Sicily  by  violating 
the  faith  of  treaties  and  disregarding  the  ties  of  blood. 
To  all  these  kingdoms.  Christopher  Columbus,  by  an 
effort  of  genius  and  of  intrepidity  the  boldest  and  most 
successful  that  is  recorded  in  the  annals  of  mankind, 
added  a  new  world,  the  wealth  of  which  became  one 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEEOE    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  295 

considerable  source  of  the  power  and  grandeur  of  the 
Spanish  monarchs. 

Don  John,  the  only  son  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella, 
and  their  eldest  daughter,  the  Queen  of  Portugal,  being 
cut  off,  without  issue,  in  the  flower  of  youth,  all  their 
hopes  centred  in  Joanna  and  her  posterity.  But  as  her 
husband,  the  archduke,  was  a  stranger  to  the  Spaniards, 
it  was  thought  expedient  to  invite  him  into  Spain,  that 
by  residing  among  them  he  might  accustom  himself  to 
their  laws  and  manners ;  and  it  was  expected  that  the 
cortes,  or  assembly  of  states,  whose  authority  was  then  so 
great  in  Spain  that  no  title  to  the  crown  was  reckoned  valid 
unless  it  received  their  sanction,  would  acknowledge  his 
right  of  succession,  together  with  that  of  the  infanta, 
his  wife.  Philip  and  Joanna,  passing  through  France  in 
their  way  to  Spain,  were  entertained  in  that  kingdom 
with  the  utmost  magnificence.  The  archduke  did 
homage  to  Louis  XII.  for  the  earldom  of  Flanders,  and 
took  his  seat  as  a  peer  of  the  realm  in  the  parliament  of 
Paris.  They  were  received  in  Spain  with  every  mark  of 
honour  that  the  parental  affection  of  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella,  or  the  respect  of  their  subjects,  could  devise ; 
and  their  title  to  the  crown  was  soon  after  acknowledged 
by  the  cortes  of  both  kingdoms. 

But  amidst  these  outward  appearances  of  satisfaction 
and  joy  some  secret  uneasiness  preyed  upon  the  mind  of 
each  of  these  princes.  The  stately  and  reserved  cere- 
monial of  the  Spanish  court  was  so  burdensome  to 
Philip,  a  prince  young,  gay,  affable,  fond  of  society  and 
of  pleasure,  that  he  soon  began  to  express  a  desire  of 
returning  to  his  native  country,  the  manners  of  which 
were  more  suited  to  his  temper.  Ferdinand,  observing 
the  declining  health  of  his  queen,  with  whose  life  he 
knew  that  his  right  to  the  government  of  Castile  must 
cease,  easily  foresaw  that  a  prince  of  Philip's  disposition, 
and  who  already  discovered  an  extreme  impatience  to 


296  EEIGN    OF    THE  [BOOK  i. 

reign,  would  never  consent  to  his  retaining  any  degree 
of  authority  in  that  kingdom ;  and  the  prospect  of  this 
diminution  of  his  power  awakened  the  jealousy  of  that 
ambitious  monarch. 

Isabella  beheld  with  the  sentiments  natural  to  a 
mother  the  indifference  and  neglect  with  which  the 
archduke  treated  her  daughter,  who  was  destitute  of 
those  beauties  of  person  as  well  as  those  accomplish- 
ments of  mind  which  fix  the  affections  of  a  husband. 
Her  understanding,  always  weak,  was  often  disordered. 
She  doted  on  Philip  with  such  an  excess  of  childish  and 
indiscreet  fondness  as  excited  disgust  rather  than  affec- 
tion. Her  jealousy,  for  which  her  husband's  behaviour 
gave  her  too  much  cause,  was  proportioned  to  her  love, 
and  often  broke  out  in  the  most  extravagant  actions. 
Isabella,  though  sensible  of  her  defects,  could  not  help 
pitying  her  condition,  which  was  soon  rendered  alto- 
gether deplorable  by  the  archduke's  abrupt  resolution  of 
setting  out  in  the  middle  of  winter  for  Flanders  and  of 
leaving  her  in  Spain.  Isabella  entreated  him  not  to 
abandon  his  wife  to  grief  and  melancholy,  which  might 
prove  fatal  to  her,  as  she  was  near  the  time  of  her 
delivery.  Joanna  conjured  him  to  put  off  his  journey 
for  three  days  only,  that  she  might  have  the  pleasure  of 
celebrating  the  festival  of  Christmas  in  his  company. 
Ferdinand,  after  representing  the  imprudence  of  his 
leaving  Spain  before  he  had  time  to  become  acquainted 
with  the  genius  or  to  gain  the  affections  of  the  people 
who  were  one  day  to  be  his  subjects,  besought  him  at 
least  not  to  pass  through  France,  with  which  kingdom 
he  was  then  at  open  war.  Philip,  without  regarding 
either  the  dictates  of  humanity  or  the  maxims  of  pru- 
dence, persisted  in  his  purpose,  and  on  the  22nd  of 
December  set  out  for  the  Low  Countries  by  the  way  of 
France.1 

1  Petri  Martyris  Anglerii  Epistolae,  250,  253. 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEROB    CHAELES    THE    FIFTH. 

From  the  moment  of  his  departure,  Joanna  sunk  into 
a  deep  and  sullen  melancholy,2  and  while  she  was  in 
that  situation  bore  Ferdinand,  her  second  son,  for  whom 
the  power  of  his  brother  Charles  afterwards  procured 
the  kingdoms  of  Hungary  and  Bohemia,  and  to  whom 
he  at  last  transmitted  the  imperial  sceptre.  Joanna  was 
the  only  person  in  Spain  who  discovered  no  joy  at  the 
birth  of  this  prince.  Insensible  to  that,  as  well  as  to 
every  other  pleasure,  she  was  wholly  occupied  with  the 
thoughts  of  returning  to  her  husband ;  nor  did  she  in 
any  degree  recover  tranquillity  of  mind  until  she  arrived 
at  Brussels  next  year.3  [1504.] 

Philip,  in  passing  through  France,  had  an  interview 
with  Louis  XII.,  and  signed  a  treaty  with  him,  by 
which  he  hoped  that  all  the  differences  between  France 
and  Spain  would  have  been  finally  terminated.  But 
Ferdinand,  whose  affairs  at  that  time  were  extremely 
prosperous  in  Italy,  where  the  superior  genius  of  Gron- 
salvo  de  Cordova,  the  great  captain,  triumphed  on  every 
occasion  over  the  arms  of  France,  did  not  pay  the  least 
regard  to  what  his  son-in-law  had  concluded,  and  carried 
on  hostilities  with  greater  ardour  than  ever. 

From  this  time  Philip  seems  not  to  have  taken  any 
part  in  the  affairs  of  Spain,  waiting  in  quiet  till  the 
death  either  of  Ferdinand  or  of  Isabella  should  open  the 
way  to  one  of  their  thrones.  The  latter  of  these  events 
was  not  far  distant.  The  untimely  death  of  her  son  and 
eldest  daughter  had  made  a  deep  impression  on  the 
mind  of  Isabella ;  and  as  she  could  derive  but  little 
consolation  for  the  losses  which  she  had  sustained  either 
from  her  daughter  Joanna,  whose  infirmities  daily 
increased,  or  from  her  son-in-law,  who  no  longer  pre- 
served even  the  appearance  of  a  decent  respect  towards 
that  unhappy  princess,  her  spirits  and  health  began 

2  Petri   Martyris  Anglerii   Epia-  3  Mariana,  lib.  27,  c.  11,   14. — 

tolsse,  255.  Fle'chier,  Vie  de  Xime'nes,  i.  191. 


298  EEIGN    OF    THE  [BOOK  i. 

gradually  to  decline,  and,  after  languishing  some 
months,  she  died  at  Medina  del  Campo  on  the  26th  of 
November,  1504.  She  was  no  less  eminent  for  virtue 
than  for  wisdom ;  and,  whether  we  consider  her  be- 
haviour as  a  queen,  as  a  wife,  or  as  a  mother,  she  is 
justly  entitled  to  the  high  encomiums  bestowed  upon 
her  by  the  Spanish  historians.4 

A  few  weeks  before  her  death,  she  made  her  last  will, 
and,  being  convinced  of  Joanna's  incapacity  to  assume 
the  reins  of  government  into  her  own  hands,  and  having 
no  inclination  to  commit  them  to  Philip,  with  whose 
conduct  she  was  extremely  dissatisfied,  she  appointed 
Ferdinand  regent  or  administrator  of  the  affairs  of 
Castile  until  her  grandson  Charles  should  attain  the 
age  of  twenty.  She  bequeathed  to  Ferdinand  likewise 
one-half  of  the  revenues  which  should  arise  from  the 
Indies,  together  with  the  grand  masterships  of  the  three 
military  orders, — dignities  which  rendered  the  person 
who  possessed  them  almost  independent,  and  which 
Isabella  had  for  that  reason  annexed  to  the  crown.5  But 
before  she  signed  a  deed  so  favourable  to  Ferdinand  she 
obliged  him  to  swear  that  he  would  not,  by  a  second 
marriage,  or  by  any  other  means,  endeavour  to  deprive 
Joanna  or  her  posterity  of  their  right  of  succession  to 
any  of  his  kingdoms.6 

Immediately  upon  the  queen's  death,  Ferdinand  re- 
signed the  title  of  king  of  Castile,  and  issued  orders 
to  proclaim  Joanna  and  Philip  the  sovereigns  of  that 
kingdom.  But  at  the  same  time  he  assumed  the  charac- 
ter of  regent,  in  consequence  of  Isabella's  testament; 
and  not  long  after,  he  prevailed  on  the  cortes  of  Castile 
to  acknowledge  his  right  to  that  office.  This,  however, 
he  did  not  procure  without  difficulty,  nor  without  dis- 

4  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  279.  raa,    Hist   g&idr.    d'Espagne,   torn. 

6  P.  Martyr,    Ep.,    277. — Mari-      viii  p.  263. 
ana,  Hist.,    Hb.   28,  c.  11. — Ferre-          "  Mariana,  Hist.,  lib.  28,  c.  14. 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEROE   CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  290 

covering  such  symptoms  of  alienation  and  disgust  among 
the  Castilians  as  filled  him  with  great  uneasiness.  The 
union  of  Castile  and  Aragon  for  almost  thirty  years  had 
not  so  entirely  extirpated  the  ancient  and  hereditary 
enmity  which  subsisted  between  the  natives  of  these 
kingdoms  that  the  Castilian  pride  could  submit  without 
murmuring  to  the  government  of  a  king  of  Aragon. 
Ferdinand's  own  character,  with  which  the  Castilians 
were  well  acquainted,  was  far  from  rendering  his  au- 
thority desirable.  Suspicious,  discerning,  severe,  and 
parsimonious,  he  was  accustomed  to  observe  the  most 
minute  actions  of  his  subjects  with  a  jealous  attention, 
and  to  reward  their  highest  services  with  little  libe- 
rality ;  and  they  were  now  deprived  of  Isabella,  whose 
gentle  qualities,  and  partiality  to  her  Castilian  subjects, 
often  tempered  his  austerity  or  rendered  it  tolerable. 
The  maxims  of  his  government  were  especially  odious 
to  the  grandees ;  for  that  artful  prince,  sensible  of  the 
dangerous  privileges  conferred  upon  them  by  the  feudal 
institutions,  had  endeavoured  to  curb  their  exorbitant 
power7  by  extending  the  royal  jurisdiction,  by  pro- 
tecting their  injured  vassals,  by  increasing  the  immuni- 
ties of  cities,  and  by  other  measures  equally  prudent. 
From  all  these  causes  a  formidable  party  among  the 
Castilians  united  against  Ferdinand,  and,  though  the 
persons  who  composed  it  had  not  hitherto  taken  any 
public  step  in  opposition  to  him,  he  plainly  saw  that 
upon  the  least  encouragement  from  their  new  king  they 
would  proceed  to  the  most  violent  extremities. 

There  was  no  less  agitation  in  the  Netherlands  upon 
receiving  the  accounts  of  Isabella's  death  and  of  Fer- 
dinand's having  assumed  the  government  of  Castile. 
Philip  was  not  of  a  temper  tamely  to  suffer  himself  to 
be  supplanted  by  the  ambition  of  his  father-in-law.  If 
Joanna's  infirmities  and  the  nonage  of  Charles  rendered 

'   Mariana,  Hist.,  lib.  28,  c.  12. 


300  REIGN    OF    THE  [BOOK  i. 

them  incapable  of  government,  he,  as  a  husband,  was 
the  proper  guardian  of  his  wife,  and,  as  a  father,  the 
natural  tutor  of  his  son.  Nor  was  it  sufficient  to  oppose 
to  these  just  rights,  and  to  the  inclination  of  the  people 
of  Castile,  the  authority  of  a  testament  the  genuineness 
of  which  was  perhaps  doubtful,  and  its  contents  to  him 
appeared  certainly  to  be  iniquitous.  A  keener  edge 
was  added  to  Philip's  resentment,  and  new  vigour  in- 
fused into  his  councils,  by  the  arrival  of  Don  John 
Manuel.  He  was  Ferdinand's  ambassador  at  the  im- 
perial court,  but  upon  the  first  notice  of  Isabella's  death 
repaired  to  Brussels,  flattering  himself  that  under  a 
young  and  liberal  prince  he  might  attain  to  power  and 
honours  which  he  could  never  have  expected  in  the 
service  of  an  old  and  frugal  master.  He  had  early 
paid  court  to  Philip,  during  his  residence  in  Spain, 
with  such  assiduity  as  entirely  gained  his  confidence, 
and,  having  been  trained  to  business  under  Ferdinand, 
could  oppose  his  schemes  with  equal  abilities,  and  with 
arts  not  inferior  to  those  for  which  that  monarch  was 
distinguished.8 

By  the  advice  of  Manuel,  ambassadors  were  de- 
spatched to  require  Ferdinand  to  retire  into  Aragon, 
and  to  resign  the  government  of  Castile  to  those  per- 
sons whom  Philip  should  intrust  with  it  until  his  own 
arrival  in  that  kingdom.  Such  of  the  Castilian  nobles 
as  had  discovered  any  dissatisfaction  with  Ferdinand's 
administration  were  encouraged  by  every  method  to 
oppose  it.  At  the  same  time  a  treaty  was  concluded 
with  Louis  XII. ,  by  which  Philip  flattered  himself  that 
he  had  secured  the  friendship  and  assistance  of  that 
monarch. 

Meanwhile,  Ferdinand  employed  all  the  arts  of  ad- 
dress and  policy  in  order  to  retain  the  power  of  which 
he  had  got  possession.  By  means  of  Conchillos,  an 

8  Zurita.  Armies  de  Aragon,  torn.  vi.  p.  12. 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEEOE    OHAKLES    THE    FIFTH.  301 

Aragonian  gentleman,  he  entered  into  a  private  ne- 
gotiation with  Joanna,  and  prevailed  on  that  weak 
princess  to  confirm,  by  her  authority,  his  right  to  the 
regency.  But  this  intrigue  did  not  escape  the  pene- 
trating eye  of  Don  John  Manuel:  Joanna's  letter  of 
consent  was  intercepted,  Conchillos  was  thrown  into  a 
dungeon,  she  herself  confined  to  an  apartment  in  the 
palace,  and  all  her  Spanish  domestics  secluded  from  her 
presence.9 

The  mortification  which  the  discovery  of  this  intrigue 
occasioned  to  Ferdinand  was  much  increased  by  his 
observing  the  progress  which  Philip's  emissaries  made 
in  Castile.  Some  of  the  nobles  retired  to  their  castles ; 
others  to  the  towns  in  which  they  had  influence ;  they 
formed  themselves  into  confederacies  and  began  to 
assemble  their  vassals.  Ferdinand's  court  was  almost 
totally  deserted, — not  a,  person  of  distinction  but 
Ximenes,  archbishop  of  Toledo,  the  duke  of'  Alva,  and 
the  marquis  of  Denia,  remaining  there ;  while  the 
houses  of  Philip's  ambassadors  were  daily  crowded  with 
noblemen  of  the  highest  rank. 

Exasperated  at  this  universal  defection,  and  morti- 
fied, perhaps,  with  seeing  all  his  schemes  defeated  by 
a  younger  politician,  Ferdinand  resolved,  in  defiance 
of  the  law  of  nature  and  of  decency,  to  deprive  his 
daughter  and  her  posterity  of  the  crown  of  Castile, 
rather  than  renounce  the  regency  of  that  kingdom. 
His  plan  for  accomplishing  this  was  no  less  bold  than 
the  intention  itself  was  wicked.  He  demanded  in 
marriage  Joanna,  the  supposed  daughter  of  Henry  IV., 
on  the  belief  of  whose  illegitimacy  Isabella's  right  to 
the  crown  of  Castile  was  founded ;  and  by  reviving  the 
claim  of  this  princess,  in  opposition  to  which  he  him- 
self had  formerly  led  armies  and  fought  battles,  he 
hoped  once  more  to  get  possession  of  the  throne  of 

9  P.  Martyr,  Ep.,  287.—  Zurita,  Anales,  vL  14. 


302  EEION    OP    THE  [BOOK  L 

that  kingdom.  But  Emanuel,  king  of  Portugal,  in 
whose  dominions  Joanna  resided  at  that  time,  having 
married  one  of  Ferdinand's  daughters  by  Isabella,  re- 
fused his  consent  to  that  unnatural  match;  and  the 
unhappy  princess  herself,  having  lost  all  relish  for  the 
objects  of  ambition  by  being  long  immured  in  a  con- 
vent, discovered  no  less  aversion  to  it.10 

The  resources,  however,  of  Ferdinand's  ambition 
were  not  exhausted.  Upon  meeting  with  a  repulse  in 
Portugal,  he  turned  towards  France,  and  sought  in 
marriage  Germaine  de  Foix,  a  daughter  of  the  viscount 
of  Narbonne;  and  of  Mary,  the  sister  of  Louis  XII. 
The  war  which  that  monarch  had  carried  on  against 
Ferdinand  in  Naples  had  been  so  unfortunate  that  he 
listened  with  joy  to  a  proposal  which  furnished  him 
with  an  honourable  pretence  for  concluding  peace ;  and 
though  no  prince  was  ever  more  remarkable  than  Ferdi- 
nand for  making  all  his  passions  bend  to  the  maxims  of 
interest  or  become  subservient  to  the  purposes  of  am- 
bition, yet  so  vehement  was  his  resentment  against  his 
son-in-law  that  the  desire  of  gratifying  it  rendered 
him  regardless  of  every  other  consideration.  In  order 
to  be  revenged  of  Philip  by  detaching  Louis  from  his 
interest,  and  in  order  to  gain  a  chance  of  excluding 
him  from  his  hereditary  throne  of  Aragon  and  the 
dominions  annexed  to  it,  he  was  ready  once  more  to 
divide  Spain  into  separate  kingdoms,  though  the  union 
of  these  was  the  great  glory  of  his  reign  and  had  been 
the  chief  object  of  his  ambition ;  he  consented  to 
restore  the  Neapolitan  nobles  of  the  French  faction 
to  their  possessions  and  honours,  and  submitted  to  the 
ridicule  of  marrying,  in  an  advanced  age,  a  princess 
of  eighteen.11 

10  Sandoval,  Hist,  of  Civil  "Wars          ll  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  290,  292.— 
in  Castile,    Lond.,    1655,  p.   5. —      Mariana,  lib.  28,  c.  16,  17. 
Zurita,  Anales  de  Aragon,  vi  213. 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  303 

The  conclusion  of  this  match,  which  deprived  Philip 
of  his  only  ally  and  threatened  him  with  the  loss  of  so 
many  kingdoms,  gave  him  a  dreadful  alarm,  and  con- 
vinced Don  John  Manuel  that  there  was  now  a  necessity 
of  taking  other  measures  with  regard  to  the  affairs  of 
Spain.12  He  accordingly  instructed  the  Flemish  am- 
bassadors in  the  court  of  Spain  to  testify  the  strong 
desire  which  their  master  had  of  terminating  all  differ- 
ences between  him  and  Ferdinand  in  an  amicable  man- 
ner, and  his  Avillingness  to  consent  to  any  conditions 
that  would  re-establish  the  friendship  which  ought  to 
subsist  between  a  father  and  a  son-in-law.  Ferdinand, 
though  he  had  made  and  broken  more  treaties  than  any 
prince  of  any  age.  was  apt  to  confide  so  far  in  the  sin- 
cerity of  other  men,  or  to  depend  so  much  upon  his 
own  address  and  their  weakness,  as  to  be  always  ex- 
tremely fond  of  a  negotiation.  He  listened  with  eager- 
ness to  the  declarations,  and  soon  concluded  a  treaty 
at  Salamanca,  in  which  it  was  stipulated  that  the  gov- 
ernment of  Castile  should  be  carried  on  in  the  joint 
names  of  Joanna,  of  Ferdinand,  and  of  Philip,  and 
that  the  revenues  of  the  crown,  as  well  as  the  right  of 
conferring  offices,  should  be  shared  between  Ferdinand 
and  Philip  by  an  equal  division.13 

Nothing,  however,  was  farther  from  Philip's  thoughts 
than  to  observe  this  treaty.  His  sole  intention  in  pro- 
posing  it  was  to  amuse  Ferdinand  and  to  prevent  him 
from  taking  any  measures  for  obstructing  his  voyage 
into  Spain.  It  had  that  effect.  Ferdinand,  sagacious 
as  he  was,  did  not  for  some  time  suspect  his  design; 
and  though,  when  he  perceived  it,  he  prevailed  on  the 
king  of  France  not  only  to  remonstrate  against  the 
archduke's  journey,  but  to  threaten  hostilities  if  he 
should  undertake  it, — though  he  solicited  the  duke  of 

12  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  293.  19.— P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  293,  294 

13  Zurita,  Anales  de  Aragon,  vi. 


304  EEIGN    OF   THE  [BOOK  i. 

Gueldres  to  attack  his  son-in-law's  dominions  in  the 
Low  Countries, — Philip  and  his  consort  nevertheless 
set  sail  with  a  numerous  fleet  and  a  good  body  of  land- 
forces.  They  were  obliged  by  a  violent  tempest  to 
take  shelter  in  England,  where  Henry  VII.,  in  com- 
pliance with  Ferdinand's  solicitations,  detained  them 
upwards  of  three  months  :14  at  last  they  were  permitted 
to  depart,  and,  after  a  more  prosperous  voyage,  they 
arrived  in  safety  at  Corunna  in  Galicia,  nor  durst  Fer- 
dinand attempt,  as  he  once  intended,  to  oppose  their 
landing  by  force  of  arms.  |~1506.] 

The  Castilian  nobles,  who  had  been  obliged  hitherto 
to  conceal  or  to  dissemble  their  sentiments,  now  de- 
clared openly  in  favour  of  Philip.  From  every  corner 
of  the  kingdom,  persons  of  the  highest  rank,  with 
numerous  retinues  of  their  vassals,  repaired  to  their 
new  sovereign.  The  treaty  of  Salamanca  was  univer- 
sally condemned,  and  all  agreed  to  exclude  from  the 
government  of  Castile  a  prince  who,  by  consenting  to 
disjoin  Aragon  and  Naples  from  that  crown,  discovered 
so  little  concern  for  its  true  interests.  Ferdinand, 
meanwhile,  abandoned  by  almost  all  the  Castilians,  dis- 
concerted by  their  revolt,  and  uncertain  whether  he 
should  peaceably  relinquish  his  power  or  take  arms  in 
order  to  maintain  it,  earnestly  solicited  an  interview 
with  his  son-in-law,  who,  by  the  advice  of  Manuel, 
studiously  avoided  it.  Convinced  at  last,  by  seeing  the 
number  and  zeal  of  Philip's  adherents  daily  increase, 
that  it  was  vain  to  think  of  resisting  such  a  torrent, 
Ferdinand  consented,  by  treaty,  to  resign  the  regency  of 
Castile  into  the  hands  of  Philip,  to  retire  into  his  here- 
ditary dominions  of  Aragon,  and  to  rest  satisfied  with 
the  masterships  of  the  military  orders,  and  that  share 
of  the  revenue  of  the  Indies  which  Isabella  had  be- 
queathed to  him.  Though  an  interview  between  the 

14  Ferreras,  Hist.,  viii.  285. 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  305 

princes  was  no  longer  necessary,  it  was  agreed  to  on 
both  sides  from  motives  of  decency.  Philip  repaired 
to  the  place  appointed  with  a  splendid  retinue  of  Cas- 
tilian  nobles  and  a  considerable  body  of  armed  men. 
Ferdinand  appeared  without  any  pomp,  attended  by  a 
few  followers  mounted  on  mules,  and  unarmed.  On 
that  occasion  Don  John  Manuel  had  the  pleasure  of 
displaying  before  the  monarch  whom  he  had  deserted 
the  extensive  influence  which  he  had  acquired  over 
his  new  master ;  while  Ferdinand  suffered,  in  presence 
of  his  former  subjects,  the  two  most  cruel  mortifica- 
tions which  an  artful  and  ambitious  prince  can  feel, — 
being  at  once  overreached  in  conduct  and  stripped  of 
power.18 

Not  long  after,  he  retired  into  Aragon ;  and,  hoping 
that  some  favourable  accident  would  soon  open  the  way 
to  his  return  into  Castile,  he  took  care  to  protest, 
though  with  great  secrecy,  that  the  treaty  concluded 
with  his  son-in-law,  being  extorted  by  force,  ought  to 
be  deemed  void  of  all  obligation.16 

Philip  took  possession  of  his  new  authority  with  a 
youthful  joy.  The  unhappy  Joanna,  from  whom  he 
derived  it,  remained,  during  all  these  contests,  under 
the  dominion  of  a  deep  melancholy;  she  was  seldom 
allowed  to  appear  in  public ;  her  father,  though  he  had 
often  desired  it,  was  refused  access  to  her ;  and  Philip's 
chief  object  was  to  prevail  on  the  cortes  to  declare  her 
incapable  of  government,  that  an  undivided  power 
might  bo  lodged  in  his  hands  until  his  son  should  attain 
to  full  age.  But  such  was  the  partial  attachment  of 
the  Castilians  to  their  native  princess  that,  though 
Manuel  had  the  address  to  gain  some  members  of  the 
cortes  assembled  at  Valladolid,  and  others  were  willing 

1S  Zurita,  Anales  de  Aragon,  vi  16  Zurita,  Anales  de  Aragon,  vi 

64.— M  ariana,  lib.  28,  c.  19,  20. —  68. — Ferreras,  Hist.  viii.  290. 
P.  Mart  -r.  Ep.,  304,  305,  etc. 

VOL.  I.  X 


306  REIGN    OF   THE  [BOOK  i. 

to  gratify  their  new  sovereign  in  his  first  request,  the 
great  body  of  the  representatives  refused  their  consent 
to  a  declaration  which  they  thought  so  injurious  to  the 
blood  of  their  monarchs.17  They  were  unanimous, 
however,  in  acknowledging  Joanna  and  Philip  queen 
and  king  of  Castile,  and  their  son  Charles  prince  of 
Asturias. 

This  was  almost  the  only  memorable  event  during 
Philip's  administration.  A  fever  put  an  end  to  his  life 
in  the  twenty-eighth  year  of  his  age,  when  he  had  not 
enjoyed  the  regal  dignity,  which  he  had  been  so  eager  to 
obtain,  full  three  months.18 

The  whole  royal  authority  in  Castile  ought,  of  course, 
to  have  devolved  upon  Joanna.  But  the  shock  occa- 
sioned by  a  disaster  so  unexpected  as  the  death  of  her 
husband  completed  the  disorder  of  her  understanding 
and  her  incapacity  for  government.  During  all  the 
time  of  Philip's  sickness,  no  entreaty  could  prevail  on 
her,  though  in  the  sixth  month  of  her  pregnancy,  to 
leave  him  for  a  moment.  When  he  expired,  however, 
she  did  not  shed  one  tear  or  utter  a  single  groan.  Her 
grief  was  silent  and  settled.  She  continued  to  watch 
the  dead  body  with  the  same  tenderness  and  attention 
as  if  it  had  been  alive,19  and,  though  at  last  she  per- 
mitted it  to  be  buried,  she  soon  removed  it  from  the 
tomb  to  her  own  apartment.  There  it  was  laid  upon  a 
bed  of  state,  in  a  splendid  dress;  and,  having  heard 
from  some  monk  a  legendary  tale  of  a  king  who  revived 
after  he  had  been  dead  fourteen  years,  she  kept  her 
eyes  almost  constantly  fixed  on  the  body,  waiting  for 
the  happy  moment  of  its  return  to  life.  Nor  was  this 
capricious  affection  for  her  dead  husband  less  tinctured 
with  jealousy  than  that  which  she  had  borne  to  him 
when  alive.  She  did  not  permit  any  of  her  female 

17  Zurita,  Anales  de  Aragon,  vi  18  Mariana,  lib.  28,  c.  23.  [1506  ] 

76  19  P.  Martyr,  Ep.,  316. 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  307 

attendants  to  approach  the  bed  on  which  his  corpse 
was  laid;  she  would  not  suffer  any  woman  who  did 
not  belong  to  her  family  to  enter  the  apartment ;  and, 
rather  than  grant  that  privilege  to  a  midwife,  though  a 
very  aged  one  had  been  chosen  on  purpose,  she  bore  the 
princess  Catharine  without  any  other  assistance  than 
that  of  her  own  domestics.20 

A  woman  in  such  a  state  of  mind  was  little  capable 
of  governing  a  great  kingdom ;  and  Joanna,  who  made 
it  her  sole  employment  to  bewail  the  loss  and  to  pray 
for  the  soul  of  her  husband,  would  have  thought  her 
attention  to  public  affairs  an  impious  neglect  of  those 
duties  which  she  owed  to  him.  But  though  she  de- 
clined assuming  the  administration  herself,  yet,  by  a 
strange  caprice  of  jealousy,  she  refused  to  commit  it 
to  any  other  person;  and  no  entreaty  of  her  subjects 
could  persuade  her  to  name  a  regent,  or  even  to  sign 
such  papers  as  were  necessary  for  the  execution  of  justice 
and  the  security  of  the  kingdom. 

The  death  of  Philip  threw  the  Castilians  into  the 
greatest  perplexity.  It  was  necessary  to  appoint  a 
regent,  both  on  account  of  Joanna's  frenzy  and  the 
infancy  of  her  son;  and  as  there  was  not  among  the 
nobles  any  person  so  eminently  distinguished,  either 
by  superiority  in  rank  or  abilities,  as  to  be  called  by 
the  public  voice  to  that  high  office,  all  naturally  turned 
their  eyes  either  towards  Ferdinand  or  towards  the 
emperor  Maximilian.  The  former  claimed  that  dignity 
as  administrator  for  his  daughter,  and  by  virtue  of  the 
testament  of  Isabella;  the  latter  thought  himself  the 
legal  guardian  of  his  grandson,  whom,  on  account  of 
his  mother's  infirmities,  he  already  considered  as  king 
of  Castile.  Such  of  the  nobility  as  had  lately  been 
most  active  in  compelling  Ferdinand  to  resign  the 
government  of  the  kingdom  trembled  at  the  thoughts 

*  Mariana,  Hist.,  lib.  29,  c.  3,  5.— P.  Martyr,  Ep.,  318,  324.  328,  332. 

X  2 


308  REIGN    OF    THE  [BOOK  i. 

of  his  being  restored  so  soon  to  his  former  dignity. 
They  dreaded  the  return  of  a  monarch  not  apt  to  for- 
give, and  who  to  those  defects  with  which  they  were 
already  acquainted  added  that  resentment  which  the 
remembrance  of  their  behaviour,  and  reflection  upon 
his  own  disgrace,  must  naturally  have  excited.  Though 
none  of  these  objections  lay  against  Maximilian,  he 
was  a  stranger  to  the  laws  and  manners  of  Castile ;  he 
had  not  either  troops  or  money  to  support  his  preten- 
sions, nor  could  his  claim  be  admitted  without  a  public 
declaration  of  Joanna's  incapacity  for  government,  an 
indignity  to  which,  notwithstanding  the  notoriety  of 
her  distemper,  the  delicacy  of  the  Castilians  could  not 
bear  the  thoughts  of  subjecting  her. 

Don  John  Manuel,  however,  and  a  few  of  the  nobles 
who  considered  themselves  most  obnoxious  to  Ferdi- 
nand's displeasure,  declared  for  Maximilian,  and  offered 
to  support  his  claim  with  all  their  interest.  Maximilian, 
always  enterprising  and  decisive  in  council,  though 
feeble  and  dilatory  in  execution,  eagerly  embraced  the 
offer.  But  a  series  of  ineffectual  negotiations  was  the 
only  consequence  of  this  transaction.  The  emperor, 
as  usual,  asserted  his  right  in  a  high  strain,  promised  a 
great  deal,  and  performed  nothing.21 

A  few  days  before  the  death  of  Philip,  Ferdinand 
had  set  out  for  Naples,  that  by  his  own  presence  he 
might  put  an  end  with  greater  decency  to  the  vice- 
royalty  of  the  Great  Captain,  whose  important  services 
and  cautious  conduct  did  not  screen  him  from  the  sus- 
picions of  his  jealous  master.  Though  an  account  of 
his  son-in-law's  death  reached  h'  n  at  Porto-fino,  in  the 
territories  of  Genoa,  he  was  so  solicitous  to  discover 
the  secret  intrigues  which  he  supposed  the  Great  Cap- 
tain to  have  been  carrying  on,  and  to  establish  his  own 
authority  on  a  firm  foundation  in  the  Neapolitan  do- 

:1   Mariana,  lib.  29,  c.  7.—  Zurita,  Anales  de  Aragon,  vi.  93. 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  309 

minions  by  removing  him  from  the  supreme  command 
there,  that  rather  than  discontinue  his  voyage  he  chose 
to  leave  Castile  in  a  state  of  anarchy,  and  even  to  risk 
by  this  delay  his  obtaining  possession  of  the  govern- 
ment of  that  kingdom.22 

Nothing  but  the  great  abilities  and  prudten  conduct 
of  his  adherents  could  have  prevented  the  bad  effects 
of  this  absence.  At  the  head  of  these  was  Ximenes, 
archbishop  of  Toledo,  who,  though  he  had  been  raised 
to  that  dignity  by  Isabella  contrary  to  the  inclination 
of  Ferdinand,  and  though  he  could  have  no  expectation 
of  enjoying  much  power  under  the  administration  of  a 
master  little  disposed  to  distinguish  him  by  extraordi- 
nary marks  of  attention,  was  nevertheless  so  disinter- 
ested as  to  prefer  the  welfare  of  his  country  before  his 
own  grandeur,  and  to  declare  that  Castile  could  never 
be  so  happily  governed  as  by  a  prince  whom  long 
experience  had  rendered  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
its  true  interest.  The  zeal  of  Ximenes  to  bring  over 
his  countrymen  to  this  opinion  induced  him  to  lay 
aside  somewhat  of  his  usual  austerity  and  haughtiness. 
He  condescended  on  this  occasion  to  court  the  dis- 
affected nobles,  and  employed  address,  as  well  as  argu- 
ments, to  persuade  them.  Ferdinand  seconded  his 
endeavours  with  great  art ;  and  by  concessions  to  some 
of  the  grandees,  by  promises  to  others,  and  by  letters 
full  of  complaisance  to  all,  he  gained  many  of  his  most 
violent  opponents.23  Though  many  cabals  were  formed, 
and  some  commotions  were  excited,  yet  when  Ferdi- 
nand, after  having  settled  the  affairs  of  Naples,  arrived 
in  Castile,  he  entered  upon  the  administration  without 
opposition.  The  prudence  with  which  he  exercised  his 
authority  in  that  kingdom  equalled  the  good  fortune  by 
which  he  had  recovered  it.  By  a  moderate  but  steady 

22  Zurita,  Anales  de  Aragon,  vi.  *  Ibid.,  vl  87,  94,  109. 

85. 


310  REIGN   OF    THE  [BOOK  I. 

administration,  free  from  partiality  and  from  resentment^ 
he  entirely  reconciled  the  Castilians  to  his  person,  and 
secured  to  them,  during  the  remainder  of  his  life,  as 
much  domestic  tranquillity  as  was  consistent  with  the 
genius  of  the  feudal  government,  which  still  subsisted 
among  them  in  full  vigour.24 

Nor  was  the  preservation  of  tranquillity  in  his  heredi- 
tary kingdoms  the  only  obligation  which  the  Archduke 
Charles  owed  to  the  wise  regency  of  his  grandfather. 
It  was  his  good  fortune,  during  that  period,  to  have 
very  important  additions  made  to  the  dominions  over 
which  he  was  to  reign.  On  the  coast  of  Barbary,  Oran, 
and  other  conquests  of  no  small  value,  were  annexed  to 
the  crown  of  Castile  by  Cardinal  Ximenes,  who,  with  a 
spirit  very  uncommon  in  a  monk,  led  in  person  a  nume- 
rous army  against  the  Moors  of  that  country,  and,  with  a 
generosity  and  magnificence  still  more  singular,  defrayed 
the  whole  expense  of  the  expedition  out  of  his  own 
revenues.25  In  Europe,  Ferdinand,  under  pretences  no 
less  frivolous  than  unjust,  as  well  as  by  artifices  the 
most  shameful  and  treacherous,  expelled  John  d'Albret, 
the  lawful  sovereign,  from  the  throne  of  Navarre,  and, 
seizing  that  kingdom,  extended  the  limits  of  the  Spanish 
monarchy  from  the  Pyrenees  on  the  one  hand  to  the 
frontiers  of  Portugal  on  the  other.26 

It  was  not,  however,  the  desire  of  aggrandizing  the 
archduke  which  influenced  Ferdinand  in  this  or  in  any 
other  of  his  actions.  He  was  more  apt  to  consider  that 
young  prince  as  a  rival  who  might  one  day  wrest  out  of 
his  hands  the  government  of  Castile,  than  as  a  grandson 
for  whose  interest  he  was  entrusted  with  the  adminis- 
tration. This  jealousy  soon  begot  aversion,  and  even 
hatred,  the  symptoms  of  which  he  was  at  no  pains  to 
conceal.  Hence  proceeded  his  immoderate  joy  when 

24  Mariana,  lib.  29,  c.  10.  26  Ibid.,  lib.  30,  c.  11,  12,  18, 

*  Ibid.,  lib.  29,  c.  18.  24. 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEROE    CHARLES   THE    FIFTH.  311 

his  young  queen  was  delivered  of  a  son,  whose  life 
would  have  deprived  Charles  of  the  crowns  of  Aragon, 
Naples,  Sicily,  and  Sardinia ;  and  upon  the  untimely 
death  of  that  prince  he  discovered,  for  the  same  reason, 
an  excessive  solicitude  to  have  other  children.  This 
impatience  hastened,  in  all  probability,  the  accession  of 
Charles  to  the  crown  of  Spain.  Ferdinand,  in  order  to 
procure  a  blessing  of  which,  from  his  advanced  age  and 
the  intemperance  of  his  youth,  he  could  have  little  pro- 
spect, had  recourse  to  his  physicians,  and  by  their  prescrip- 
tion took  one  of  those  potions  which  are  supposed  to  add 
vigour  to  the  constitution,  though  they  more  frequently 
prove  fatal  to  it.  This  was  its  effect  on  a  frame  so 
feeble  and  exhausted  as  that  of  Ferdinand ;  for  though 
he  survived  a  violent  disorder  which  it  at  first  occa- 
sioned, it  brought  on  such  an  habitual  langour  and 
dejection  of  mind  as  rendered  him  averse  from  any 
serious  attention  to  public  affairs,  and  fond  of  frivolous 
amusements,  on  which  he  had  not  hitherto  bestowed 
much  time.27  Though  he  now  despaired  of  having  any 
son  of  his  own,  his  jealousy  of  the  archduke  did  not 
abate,  nor  could  he  help  viewing  him  with  that  aversion 
which  princes  often  bear  to  their  successors.  In  order 
to  gratify  this  unnatural  passion,  he  made  a  will  ap- 
pointing Prince  Ferdinand,  who,  having  been  born  and 
educated  in  Spain,  was  much  beloved  by  the  Spaniards, 
to  be  regent  of  all  his  kingdoms  until  the  arrival  of  the 
archduke  his  brother ;  and  by  the  same  deed  he  settled 
upon  him  the  grand-mastership  of  the  three  military 
orders.  The  former  of  these  grants  might  have  put  it 
in  the  power  of  the  young  prince  to  have  disputed  the 
throne  with  his  brother ;  the  latter  would,  in  any  event, 
have  rendered  him  almost  independent  of  him. 

Ferdinand  retained  to  the   last  that  jealous  love  of 

27  Zurita,  Anales  de  Aragon,  vi.      gensola,  Anales  de  Aragon,  lib.  L 
347.— P.  Martyr.  Ep.,   531.— Ar-      p.  4. 


312  EEIGN    OF    THE  [BOOK  I. 

power  which  was  so  remarkable  through  his  whole  life. 
Unwilling,  even  at  the  approach  of  death,  to  admit  a 
thought  of  relinquishing  any  portion  of  his  authority, 
he  removed  continually  from  place  to  place,  in  order 
to  fly  from  his  distemper,  or  to  forget  it.     Though  his 
strength   declined   every  day,   none  of   his    attendants 
durst  mention  his  condition;  nor  would  he  admit  his 
father-confessor,  who  thought  such  silence  criminal  and 
unchristian,  into  his  presence.     At  last  the  danger  be- 
came so  imminent  that  it  could  be  no  longer  concealed. 
Ferdinand  received  the  intimation  with  a  decent  forti- 
tude ;  and,  touched,  perhaps,  with  compunction  at  the 
injustice  which  he  had  done  his  grandson,  or  influenced 
by  the  honest  remonstrances  of  Carvajal,  Zapara,  and 
Vargas,  his  most  ancient  and  faithful  councillors,  who 
represented  to  him  that  by  investing  Prince  Ferdinand 
with  the  regency  he  would  infallibly  entail  a  civil  war 
on   the   two  brothers,  and  by  bestowing   on   him   the 
grand-mastership  of  the  military  orders  would  strip  the 
crown  of  its  noblest  ornament  and  chief  strength,  he 
consented  to  alter  his  will  with  respect  to  both  these 
particulars.     By  a  new  deed  he  left  Charles  the  sole 
heir  of  all  his  dominions,  and  allotted  to  Prince  Ferdi- 
nand,  instead    of    that    throne   of    which    he   thought 
himself  almost  secure,  an  inconsiderable  establishment 
of  fifty  thousand  ducats  a  year.28     He  died  a  few  hours 
after  signing  this  will,  on  the   23rd  day  of  January, 
1516. 

Charles,  to  whom  such  a  noble  inheritance  descended 
by  his  death,  was  near  the  full  age  of  sixteen.  He  had 
hitherto  resided  in  the  Low  Countries,  his  paternal 
dominions.  Margaret  of  Austria,  his  aunt,  and  Mar- 
garet of  York,  the  sister  of  Edward  IV.  of  England, 

'8  Mariana,  Hist,  lib.  30,  c.  ult.      Argensola,   Analea  de  Aragon,  lib. 
— Zurita,    Anales   de   Aragon,    vi.      L  p.  11. 
401. — P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  565,  566. — 


BOOK   I. 


EMPEROR  CHARLES  TOE  FIFTH. 


and  widow  of  Charles  the  Bold,  two  princesses  of  great 
virtue  and  abilities,  had  the  care  of  forming  his  early 
youth.  Upon  the  death  of  his  father  the  Flemings 
committed  the  government  of  the  Low  Countries  to 
his  grandfather,  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  with  the 
name  rather  than  the  authority  of  regent.29  Maxi- 
milian made  choice  of  William  de  Croy,  lord  of  Chievres, 
to  superintend  the  education  of  the  young  prince  his 
grandson.30  That  nobleman  possessed  in  an  eminent 


29  Pontius  Heuterus,  Rerum  Aus- 
triacarum  Lib.  XV.,  Lov.,  1649, 
lib.  viL  c.  2,  p.  155. 

3  The  French  historians,  upon 
the  authority  of  M.  de  Bellay, 
Me'moires,  p.  11,  have  unanimous- 
ly asserted  that,  Philip  by  his  last 
will  having  appointed  the  king  of 
France  to  have  the  direction  of  his 
son's  education,  Louis  XII.,  with 
a  disinterestedness  suitable  to  the 
confidence  reposed  in  him,  named 
Chievres  for  that  office.  Even  the 
President  He'nault  has  adopted  this 
opinion.  (Abrege'  Chron.,  A.D. 
1507.)  Varillas,  in  his  usual  man- 
ner, pretends  to  have  seen  Philip's 
testament.  (Pract.  de  1'Educa- 
tion  des  Princes,  p.  16.)  But  the 
Spanish,  German,  and  Flemish  his- 
torians concur  in  contradicting  this 
assertion  of  the  French  authors. 
It  appears  from  Heuterus,  a  con- 
temporary Flemish  historian  of  great 
authority,  that  Louis  XII.,  by  con- 
senting to  the  marriage  of  Ger- 
maine  de  Foix  with  Ferdinand,  had 
lost  much  of  that  confidence  which 
Philip  once  placed  in  him  ;  that 
his  disgust  was  increased  by  the 
French  king's  giving  in  marriage  to 
the  count  of  Angoule'me  his  eldest 
daughter,  whom  he  had  formerly 
betrothed  to  Charles  (Heuter.,  Rer. 
Austr.  lib.  v.  p.  151)  ;  that  the 
French,  a  short  time  before  Philip's 


death,  had  violated  the  peace  which 
subsisted  between  them  and  the 
Flemings,  and  Philip  had  com- 
plained of  this  injury  and  was 
ready  to  resent  it.  (Heuter.,  ibid.) 
All  these  circumstances  render  it 
improbable  that  Philip,  who  made 
his  will  a  few  days  before  he  died 
(Heuter.,  p.  152),  should  commit 
the  education  of  his  son  to  Louis 
XII.  In  confirmation  of  these 
plausible  conjectures  positive  testi- 
mony can  be  produced.  It  appears 
from  Heuterus  that  Philip,  when 
he  set  out  for  Spain,  had  intrusted 
Chievres  both  with  the  care  of  hia 
son's  education  and  with  the  go- 
vernment of  his  dominions  in  the 
Low  Countries  (Heuter.,  lib.  vii. 
p.  153);  that  an  attempt  was  made, 
soon  after  Philip's  death,  to  have 
the  emperor  Maximilian  appointed 
regent  during  the  minority  of  hia 
grandson,  but,  this  being  opposed, 
Chievres  seems  to  have  continued 
to  discharge  both  the  offices  which 
Philip  had  committed  to  him  (Heu- 
ter., ibid.,  153,  155)  ;  that  in 
the  beginning  of  the  year  1508  the 
Flemings  invited  Maximilian  to  ac- 
cept of  the  regency,  to  which  he 
consented,  and  appointed  his  daugh- 
ter Margaret,  together  with  a  coun- 
cil of  Flemings,  to  exercise  the 
supreme  authority  when  he  him- 
self should  at  any  time  be  absent. 


31 4  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  i. 

degree  tlie  talents  which  fitted  him  for  such  an  im- 
portant office,  and  discharged  the  duties  of  it  with 
great  fidelity.  Under  Chievres,  Adrian  of  Utrecht 
acted  as  preceptor.  This  preferment,  which  opened 
his  way  to  the  highest  dignities  an  ecclesiastic  can 
attain,  he  owed  not  to  his  birth,  for  that  was  extremely 
mean,  nor  to  his  interest,  for  he  was  a  stranger  to  the 
arts  of  a  court,  but  to  the  opinion  which  his  country- 
men entertained  of  his  learning.  He  was  indeed  no 
inconsiderable  proficient  in  those  frivolous  sciences 
which  during  several  centuries  assumed  the  name  of 
philosophy,  and  had  published  a  commentary,  which 
was  highly  esteemed,  upon  The  Book  of  Sentences,  a 
famous  treatise  of  Petrus  Lombardus,  considered  at 
that  time  as  the  standard  system  of  metaphysical 
theology.  But,  whatever  admiration  these  procured 
him  in  an  illiterate  age,  it  was  soon  found  that  a  man 
accustomed  to  the  retirement  of  a  college,  unacquainted 
with  the  world,  and  without  any  tincture  of  taste  or 
elegance,  was  by  no  means  qualified  for  rendering 
science  agreeable  to  a  young  prince.  Charles,  accord- 
ingly, discovered  an  early  aversion  to  learning,  and  an 
excessive  fondness  for  those  violent  and  martial  exer- 
cises to  excel  in  which  was  the  chief  pride,  and  almost 
the  only  study,  of  persons  of  rank  in  that  age. 
Chievres  encouraged  this  taste,  either  from  a  desire 
of  gaining  his  pupil  by  indulgence,  or  from  too  slight 
an  opinion  of  the  advantages  of  literary  accomplish- 
ments.31 He  instructed  him,  however,  with  great  care 

He   likewise   named    Chievres    as  Barlandus,  Chronic.  Brabant.,  ibid., 

governor,    and    Adrian  of  Utrecht  p.    25  ;    and    by    Haraeus,    AnnaL 

as  preceptor  to  his  son.      (Heuter.,  Brab.,  vol.  ii.  p.  520,  etc. 
ibid.,  155,  157.)     What  Heuterus  31  Jovii  Vita  Adriani,   p.   91.— 

relates  with  respect  to  this  matter  Struvii    Corpus    Hist.    Germ.,    ii. 

is  confirmed  by  Moringus,  in  Vita  967. — P.  Heuter.,  Rer.  Austr.,  lib. 

Adriani  apud  Analecta  Casp.  Bur-  vii.  c.  3,  p.  157. 
muimi  de  Adriano,    cap.    10  ;    by 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEKOB  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  315 

in  the  arts  of  government ;  he  made  him  study  the 
history  not  only  of  his  own  kingdoms,  but  of  those 
with  which  they  were  connected ;  he  accustomed  him, 
from  the  time  of  his  assuming  the  government  of 
Flanders,  in  the  year  1515,  to  attend  to  business;  he 
persuaded  him  to  peruse  all  papers  relating  to  public 
affairs,  to  be  present  at  the  deliberations  of  his  privy- 
councillors,  and  to  propose  to  them  himself  those 
matters  concerning  which  he  required  their  opinion.32 
From  such  an  education  Charles  contracted  habits  of 
gravity  and  recollection  which  scarcely  suited  his  time 
of  life.  The  first  openings  of  his  genius  did  not  indi- 
cate that  superiority  which  its  maturer  age  displayed.33 
He  did  not  discover  in  his  youth  the  impetuosity  of 
spirit  which  commonly  ushers  in  an  active  and  enter- 
prising manhood.  Nor  did  his  early  obsequiousness  to 
Chievres  and  his  other  favourites  promise  that  capacious 
and  decisive  judgment  which  afterwards  directed  the 
affairs  of  one-half  of  Europe.  But  his  subjects,  dazzled 
with  the  external  accomplishments  of  a  graceful  figure 
and  manly  address,  and  viewing  his  character  with 
that  partiality  which  is  always  shown  to  princes  during 
their  youth,  entertained  sanguine  hopes  of  his  adding 
lustre  to  those  crowns  which  descended  to  him  by  the 
death  of  Ferdinand. 

The  kingdoms  of  Spain,  as  is  evident  from  the  view 
which  I  have  given  of  their  political  constitution,  were 
at  that  time  in  a  situation  which  required  an  admi- 
nistration no  less  vigorous  than  prudent.  The  feudal 
institutions,  which  had  been  introduced  into  all  its 
different  provinces  by  the  Goths,  the  Suevi,  and  the 
Vandals,  subsisted  in  great  force.  The  nobles,  who  were 
powerful  and  warlike,  had  long  possessed  all  the  exorbi- 
tant privileges  which  these  institutions  vested  in  their 

32  Mdmoires  de  Bellay,  8vo,  Par.,      c    1,  p.  184. 
1573,  p.  11.— P.  Heuter.,  lib.  viii.  33  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  569,  655. 


316  HEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  t. 

order.  The  cities  in  Spain  were  more  numerous  and 
more  considerable  than  the  genius  of  feudal  government, 
naturally  unfavourable  to  commerce  and  to  regular 
police,  seemed  to  admit.  The  personal  rights  and  poli- 
tical influence  which  the  inhabitants  of  these  cities  had 
acquired  were  extensive.  The  royal  prerogative,  cir- 
cumscribed by  the  privileges  of  the  nobility  and  by  the 
pretensions  of  the  people,  was  confined  within  very 
narrow  limits.  Under  such  a  form  of  government,  the 
principles  of  discord  were  many,  the  bond  of  union 
was  extremely  feeble,  and  Spain  felt  not  only  all  the 
inconveniences  occasioned  by  the  defects  in  the  feudal 
system,  but  was  exposed  to  disorders  arising  from  the 
peculiarities  in  its  own  constitution. 

During  the  long  administration  of  Ferdinand,  no 
internal  commotion,  it  is  true,  had  arisen  in  Spain. 
His  superior  abilities  had  enabled  him  to  restrain  the 
turbulence  of  the  nobles  and  to  moderate  the  jealousy 
of  the  commons.  By  the  wisdom  of  his  domestic 
government,  by  the  sagacity  with  which  he  conducted 
his  foreign  operations,  and  by  the  high  opinion  that 
his  subjects  entertained  of  both,  he  had  preserved 
among  them  a  degree  of  tranquillity  greater  than  was 
natural  to  a  constitution  in  which  the  seeds  of  discord 
and  disorder  were  so  copiously  mingled.  But  by  the 
death  of  Ferdinand  these  restraints  were  at  once  Avith- 
drawn ;  and  faction  and  discontent,  from  being  long 
repressed,  were  ready  to  break  out  with  fiercer 
animosity. 

In  order  to  prevent  these  evils,  Ferdinand  had  in  his 
last  will  taken  a  most  prudent  precaution,  by  appoint- 
ing Cardinal  Ximenes,  Archbishop  of  Toledo,  to  be 
sole  regent  of  Castile  until  the  arrival  of  his  grandson 
in  Spain.  The  singular  character  of  this  man,  and  the 
extraordinary  qualities  which  marked  him  out  for  that 
office  at  such  a  juncture,  merit  a  particular  description. 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEROR  CUAELES  THE  FIFTH.  317 

He  was  descended  of  an  honourable,  not  of  a  wealthy, 
family ;  and,  the  circumstances  of  his  parents,  as  well 
as  his  own  inclinations,  having  determined  him  to  f. liter 
into  the  Church,  he  early  obtained  benefices  of  great 
value,  and  which  placed  him  in  the  way  of  the  highest 
preferment.  All  these,  however,  he  renounced  at  once, 
and,  after  undergoing  a  very  severe  novitiate,  assumed 
the  habit  of  St.  Francis  in  a  monastery  of  Observantine 
friars,  one  of  the  most  rigid  orders  in  the  Eomish 
Church.  There  he  soon  became  eminent  for  his  un- 
common austerity  of  manners,  and  for  those  excesses 
of  superstitious  devotion  which  are  the  proper  charac- 
teristics of  the  monastic  life.  But,  notwithstanding 
these  extravagances,  to  which  weak  and  enthusiastic 
minds  alone  are  usually  prone,  his  understanding,  natu- 
rally penetrating  and  decisive,  retained  its  full  vigour, 
and  acquired  him  such  great  authority  in  his  own  order 
as  raised  him  to  be  their  provincial.  His  reputation 
for  sanctity  soon  procured  him  the  office  of  father-con- 
fessor to  Queen  Isabella,  which  he  accepted  with  the 
utmost  reluctance.  He  preserved  in  a  court  the  same 
austerity  of  manners  which  had  distinguished  him  in 
the  cloister.  He  continued  to  make  all  his  journeys 
on  foot ;  he  subsisted  only  upon  alms  ;  his  acts  of  mor- 
tification were  as  severe  as  ever,  and  his  penances  as 
rigorous.  Isabella,  pleased  with  her  choice,  conferred 
on  him,  not  long  after,  the  archbishopric  of  Toledo, 
which,  next  to  the  papacy,  is  the  richest  dignity  in  the 
Church  of  Rome.  This  honour  he  declined  with  the 
firmness  which  nothing  but  the  authoritative  injunction 
of  the  pope  was  able  to  overcome.  Nor  did  this  height 
of  promotion  change  his  manners.  Though  obliged 
to  display  in  public  that  magnificence  which  became 
his  station,  he  himself  retained  his  monastic  severity. 
Under  his  pontifical  robes  he  constantly  wore  the  coarse 
frock  of  St.  Francis,  the  rents  in  which  he  used  to  patch 


318  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  i. 

with  his  own  hands.  He  at  no  time  used  linen,  but 
was  commonly  clad  in  hair-cloth.  He  slept  always  in 
his  habit,  most  frequently  on  the  ground,  or  on  boards, 
rarely  in  a  bed.  He  did  not  taste  any  of  the  delicacies 
which  appeared  at  his  table,  but  satisfied  himself  with 
that  simple  diet  which  the  rule  of  his  order  prescribed.34 
Notwithstanding  these  peculiarities,  so  opposite  to  the 
manners  of  the  world,  he  possessed  a  thorough  know- 
ledge of  its  affairs  ;  and  no  sooner  was  he  called  by  his 
station,  and  by  the  high  opinion  which  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella  entertained  of  him,  to  take  a  principal  share  in 
the  administration,  than  he  displayed  talents  for  business 
which  rendered  the  fame  of  his  wisdom  equal  to  that 
of  his  sanctity.  His  political  conduct,  remarkable  for 
the  boldness  and  originality  of  all  his  plans,  flowed 
from  his  real  character,  and  partook  both  of  its  virtues 
and  its  defects.  His  extensive  genius  suggested  to 
him  schemes  vast  and  magnificent.  Conscious  of  the 
integrity  of  his  intentions,  he  pursued  these  with  unre- 
mitting and  undaunted  firmness.  Accustomed  from  his 
early  youth  to  mortify  his  own  passions,  he  showed 
little  indulgence  towards  those  of  other  men.  Taught 
by  his  system  of  religion  to  check  even  his  most  inno- 
cent desires,  he  was  the  enemy  of  everything  to  which 
he  could  affix  the  name  of  elegance  or  pleasure.  Though 
free  from  any  suspicion  of  cruelty,  he  discovered  in  all 
his  commerce  with  the  world  a  severe  inflexibility  of 
mind,  and  austerity  of  character,  peculiar  to  the  monastic 
profession,  and  which  can  hardly  be  conceived  in  a 
country  where  that  is  unknown. 

Such  was  the  man  to  whom  Ferdinand  committed 
the  regency  of  Castile ;  and  though  Ximenes  was  then 
near  fourscore,  and  perfectly  acquainted  with  the  labour 
and  difficulty  of  the  office,  his  natural  intrepidity  of 

34  Histoire    de     1'Aclministration      Baudier,  4to,  1635,  p  13. 
du    Cardinal  Ximdnes,   par    Mich. 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEEOE  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  319 

mind,  and  zeal  for  the  public  good,  prompted  him  to 
accept  of  it  without  hesitation.  Adrian  of  Utrecht,  who 
had  been  sent  into  Spain  a  few  months  before  the 
death  of  Ferdinand,  produced  full  powers  from  the 
archduke  to  assume  the  name  and  authority  of  regent 
upon  the  demise  of  his  grandfather ;  but  such  was  the 
aversion  of  the  Spaniards  to  the  government  of  a 
stranger,  and  so  unequal  the  abilities  of  the  two  com- 
petitors, that  Adrian's  claim  would  at  once  have  been 
rejected  if  Ximenes  himself,  from  complaisance  to  his 
new  master,  had  not  consented  to  acknowledge  him  as 
regent  and  to  carry  on  the  government  in  conjunction 
with  him.  By  this,  however,  Adrian  acquired  a  dignity 
merely  nominal.  Ximenes,  though  he  treated  him  with 
great  decency,  and  even  respect,  retained  the  whole 
power  in  his  own  hands.36 

The  cardinal's  first  care  was  to  observe  the  motions 
of  the  infant  Don  Ferdinand,  who,  having  been  flattered 
with  so  near  a  prospect  of  supreme  power,  bore  the  dis- 
appointment of  his  hopes  with  greater  impatience  than 
a  prince  at  a  period  of  life  so  early  could  have  been 
supposed  to  feel.  Ximenes,  under  pretence  of  pro- 
viding more  effectually  for  his  safety,  removed  him 
from  Gruadalupe,  the  place  in  which  he  had  been 
educated,  to  Madrid,  where  he  fixed  the  residence  of 
the  court.  There  he  was  under  the  cardinal's  own  eye, 
and  his  conduct,  with  that  of  his  domestics,  was  watched 
with  the  utmost  attention.36 

The  first  intelligence  he  received  from  the  Low 
Countries  gave  greater  disquiet  to  the  cardinal,  and 
convinced  him  how  difficult  a  task  it  would  be  to 
conduct  the  affairs  of  an  inexperienced  prince  under 
the  influence  of  councillors  unacquainted  with  the  laws 

"  Gometius  de  Eeb.  gest  Xime-  i.  c.  2. — Baudier,  Hist,  de  Ximrf- 
nil,  p.  150,  fol.,  Compl,  1569.  nfes,  p.  118. 

3i;  Miiiiaiiau  Contiu.  Murianse,  lib. 


320  BEIGN  OP  THE  [BOOK  i. 

and  manners  of  Spain.  No  sooner  did  the  account 
of  Ferdinand's  death  reach  Brussels,  than  Charles,  by 
the  advice  of  his  Flemish  ministers,  resolved  to  assume 
the  title  of  king.  By  the  laws  of  Spain,  the  sole  right 
of  the  crowns  both  of  Castile  and  of  Aragon  belonged 
to  Joanna ;  and,  though  her  infirmities  disqualified  her 
from  governing,  this  incapacity  had  not  been  declared 
by  any  public  act  of  the  cortes  in  either  kingdom ; 
so  that  the  Spaniards  considered  this  resolution  not 
only  as  a  direct  violation  of  their  privileges,  but  as 
an  unnatural  usurpation  in  a  son  on  the  prerogatives 
of  a  mother,  towards  whom,  in  her  present  unhappy 
situation,  he  manifested  a  less  delicate  regard  than 
her  subjects  had  always  expressed.37  The  Flemish 
court,  however,  having  prevailed  both  on  the  pope 
and  on  the  emperor  to  address  letters  to  Charles  as 
king  of  Castile, — the  former  of  whom  it  was  pre- 
tended had  a  right  as  head  of  the  Church,  and  the 
latter  as  head  of  the  empire,  to  confer  this  title, — 
instructions  were  sent  to  Ximenes  to  prevail  on  the 
Spaniards  to  acknowledge  it.  Ximenes,  though  he  had 
earnestly  remonstrated  against  the  measure,  as  no  less 
unpopular  than  unnecessary,  resolved  to  exert  all  his 
authority  and  credit  in  carrying  it  into  execution,  and 
immediately  assembled  such  of  the  nobles  as  were  then 
at  court.  What  Charles  required  was  laid  before  them  ; 
and  when,  instead  of  complying  with  his  demands, 
they  began  to  murmur  against  such  an  unprecedented 
encroachment  on  their  privileges,  and  to  talk  high  of 
the  rights  of  Joanna  and  their  oath  of  allegiance  to 
her,  Ximenes  hastily  interposed,  and,  with  that  firm 
and  decisive  tone  which  was  natural  to  him,  told 
them  that  they  were  not  called  now  to  deliberate,  but 
to  obey ;  that  their  sovereign  did  not  apply  to  them  for 
advice,  but  expected  submission ;  and  "  this  day," 

37  P,  Martyr.  Ep.,  563. 


UOOK  i.]  EMPEKOR  OHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  321 

added  he,  "  Charles  shall  be  proclaimed  king  of  Castile 
in  Madrid;  and  the  rest  of  the  cities,  I  doubt  not, 
will  follow  its  example."  On  the  spot  he  gave  orders 
for  that  purpose;38  and,  notwithstanding  the  novelty 
of  the  practice,  and  the  secret  discontents  of  many 
persons  of  distinction,  Charles's  title  was  universally 
recognized.  In  Aragon,  where  the  privileges  of  the 
subject  were  more  extensive,  and  the  abilities  as  well 
as  authority  of  the  archbishop  of  Saragossa,  whom 
Ferdinand  had  appointed  regent,  were  far  inferior  to 
those  of  Ximenes,  the  same  obsequiousness  to  the  will 
of  Charles  did  not  appear,  nor  was  he  acknowledged 
there  under  any  other  character  but  that  of  prince, 
until  his  arrival  in  Spain.89 

Ximenes,  though  possessed  only  of  delegated  power, 
which,  from  his  advanced  age,  he  could  not  expect  to 
enjoy  long,  assumed,  together  with  the  character  of 
regent,  all  the  ideas  natural  to  a  monarch,  and  adopted 
schemes  for  extending  the  regal  authority,  which  he 
pursued  with  as  much  intrepidity  and  ardour  as  if  he 
himself  had  been  to  reap  the  advantages  resulting  from 
their  success.  The  exorbitant  privileges  of  the  Cas- 
tilian  nobles  circumscribed  the  prerogative  of  the 
prince  within  very  narrow  limits.  These  privileges  the 
cardinal  considered  as  so  many  unjust  extortions  from 
the  crown,  and  determined  to  abridge  them.  Dan- 
gerous as  the  attempt  was,  there  were  circumstances 
in  his  situation  which  promised  him  greater  success 
than  any  king  of  Castile  could  have  expected.  His 
strict  and  prudent  economy  of  his  archiepiscopal 
revenues  furnished  him  with  more  ready  money  than 
the  crown  could  at  any  time  command ;  the  sanctity 
of  his  manners,  his  charity  and  munificence,  rendered 
him  the  idol  of  the  people ;  and  the  nobles  themselves, 

38  Gometius,  p.   152,  etc.— Bait-          "  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  572. 
dier,  Hist,  de  Ximenes,  p.  121. 

VOL.  I.  * 


322  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  *. 

not  suspecting  any  danger  from  him,  did  not  observe 
his  motions  with  the  same  jealous  attention  as  they  would 
have  watched  those  of  one  of  their  monarchs. 

Immediately  upon  his  accession  to  the  regency, 
several  of  the  nobles,  fancying  that  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment would,  of  consequence,  be  somewhat  relaxed, 
began  to  assemble  their  vassals,  and  to  prosecute,  by 
force  of  arms,  private  quarrels  and  pretensions  which 
the  authority  of  Ferdinand  had  obliged  them  to  dissemble 
or  to  relinquish.  But  Ximenes,  who  had  taken  into  pay 
a  good  body  of  troops,  opposed  and  defeated  all  their 
designs  with  unexpected  vigour  and  facility ;  and,  though 
he  did  not  treat  the  authors  of  these  disorders  with  any 
cruelty,  he  forced  them  to  acts  of  submission  extremely 
mortifying  to  the  haughty  spirit  of  Castilian  grandees. 

But  while  the  cardinal's  attacks  were  confined  to 
individuals,  and  every  act  of  rigour  was  justified  by 
the  appearance  of  necessity,  founded  on  the  forms  of 
justice  and  tempered  with  a  mixture  of  lenity,  there 
was  scarcely  room  for  jealousy  or  complaint.  It  was 
not  so  with  his  next  measure,  which,  by  striking  at  a 
privilege  essential  to  the  nobility,  gave  a  general  alarm 
to  the  whole  order.  By  the  feudal  constitution,  the 
military  power  was  lodged  in  the  hands  of  the  nobles, 
and  men  of  an  inferior  condition  were  called  into  the 
field  only  as  their  vassals  and  to  follow  their  banners, 
A  king  with  scanty  revenues  and  a  limited  prerogative 
depended  on  these  potent  barons  in  all  his  operations. 
It  was  with  their  forces  he  attacked  his  enemies,  and 
with  them  he  defended  his  kingdom.  While  at  the 
head  of  troops  attached  warmly  to  their  own  im- 
mediate lords  and  accustomed  to  obey  no  other  com- 
mands, his  authority  was  precarious  and  his  efforts 
feeble.  From  this  state  Ximenes  resolved  to  deliver 
the  crown ;  and  as  mercenary  standing  armies  were 
unknown  under  the  feudal  government,  and  would 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEEOR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  323 

have  been  odious  to  a  martial  and  generous  people, 
he  issued  a  proclamation  commanding  every  city  in 
Castile  to  enrol  a  certain  number  of  its  burgesses,  in 
order  that  they  might  be  trained  to  the  use  of  arms  on 
Sundays  and  holidays;  he  engaged  to  provide  officers 
to  command  them  at  the  public  expense,  and,  as  an 
encouragement  to  the  private  men,  promised  them  an 
exemption  from  all  taxes  and  impositions.  The  fre- 
quent incursions  of  the  Moors  from  Africa,  and  the 
necessity  of  having  some  force  always  ready  to  oppose 
them,  furnished  a  plausible  pretence  for  this  innova- 
tion. The  object  really  in  view  was  to  secure  the  king 
a  body  of  troops  independent  of  his  barons  and  which 
might  serve  to  counterbalance  their  power.40  The 
nobles  were  not  slow  in  perceiving  what  was  his  inten- 
tion, and  saw  how  effectually  the  scheme  which  he  had 
adopted  would  accomplish  his  end;  but  as  a  measure 
which  had  the  pious  appearance  of  resisting  the  pro- 
gress of  the  infidels  was  extremely  popular,  and  as  any 
opposition  to  it  arising  from  their  order  alone  would 
have  been  imputed  wholly  to  interested  motives,  they 
endeavoured  to  excite  the  cities  themselves  to  refuse 
obedience  and  to  inveigh  against  the  proclamation  as 
inconsistent  with  their  charters  and  privileges.  In 
consequence  of  their  instigation,  Burgos,  Valladolid, 
and  several  other  cities  rose  in  open  mutiny.  Some 
of  the  grandees  declared  themselves  their  protectors. 
Violent  remonstrances  were  presented  to  the  king. 
His  Flemish  councillors  were  alarmed.  Ximenes  alone 
continued  firm  and  undaunted ;  and,  partly  by  terror, 
partly  by  entreaty,  by  force  in  some  instances,  and  by 
forbearance  in  others,  he  prevailed  on  all  the  refractory 
cities  to  comply.41  During  his  administration  he  con- 


40  Minianae  Continuatio  Marianae,  41  P.   Martyr.    Ep.,   556,  etc. — 

foL,  Hag.,  1733,  p.  3.  Gometius,  p.  J  60,  etc. 

T  * 


324  REIGN  OP  THE  [BOOK  i. 

tinued  to  execute  his  plan  with  vigour ;  but  soon  after 
his  death  it  was  entirely  dropped. 

His  success  in  this  scheme  for  reducing  the  exorbi- 
tant power  of  the  nobility  encouraged  him  to  attempt 
a  diminution  of  their  possessions,  which  were  no  less 
exorbitant.  During  the  contests  and  disorders  insepa- 
rable from  the  feudal  government,  the  nobles,  ever 
attentive  to  their  own  interest,  and  taking  advantage 
of  the  weakness  or  distress  of  their  monarchs,  had 
seized  some  parts  of  the  royal  demesnes,  obtained 
grants  of  others,  and,  having  gradually  wrested  almost 
the  whole  out  of  the  hands  of  the  prince,  had  annexed 
them  to  their  own  estates.  The  titles  by  which  most 
of  the  grandees  held  these  lands  were  extremely  de- 
fective :  it  was  from  some  successful  usurpation  which 
the  crown  had  been  too  feeble  to  dispute,  that  many 
derived  their  only  claim  to  possession.  An  inquiry 
carried  back  to  the  origin  of  these  encroachments, 
which  were  almost  coeval  with  the  feudal  system,  was 
impracticable ;  and,  as  it  would  have  stripped  every 
nobleman  in  Spain  of  great  part  of  his  lands,  it  must 
have  excited  a  general  revolt.  Such  a  step  was  too 
bold  even  for  the  enterprising  spirit  of  Ximenes.  He 
confined  himself  to  the  reign  of  Ferdinand,  and,  beginning 
with  the  pensions  granted  during  that  time,  refused 
to  make  any  farther  payment,  because  all  right  to  them 
expired  with  his  life.  He  then  called  to  account  such 
as  had  acquired  crown  lands  under  the  administration 
of  that  monarch,  and  at  once  resumed  whatever  he  had 
alienated.  The  effects  of  these  revocations  extended  to 
many  persons  of  high  rank ;  for  though  Ferdinand  was 
a  prince  of  little  generosity,  yet  he  and  Isabella  having 
been  raised  to  the  throne  of  Castile  by  a  powerful  fac- 
tion of  the  nobles,  they  were  obliged  to  reward  the  zeal 
of  their  adherents  with  great  liberality,  and  the  royal 
demesnes  were  their  only  fund  for  that  purpose.  The 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  325 

addition  made  to  the  revenue  of  the  crown  by  these 
revocations,  together  with  his  own  frugal  economy, 
enabled  Ximenes  not  only  to  discharge  all  the  debts 
which  Ferdinand  had  left,  and  to  remit  considerable 
sums  to  Flanders,  but  to  pay  the  officers  of  his  new 
militia,  and  to  establish  magazines  not  only  more 
numerous,  but  better  furnished  with  artillery,  arms, 
and  warlike  stores,  than  Spain  had  ever  possessed  in 
any  former  age.42  The  prudent  and  disinterested  ap- 
plication of  these  sums  was  a  full  apology  to  the  people 
for  the  rigour  with  which  they  were  exacted. 

The  nobles,  alarmed  at  these  repeated  attacks,  began 
to  think  of  precautions  for  the  safety  of  their  order. 
Many  cabals  were  formed,  loud  complaints  were  uttered, 
and  desperate  resolutions  taken ;  but  before  they  pro- 
ceeded to  extremities  they  appointed  some  of  their 
number  to  examine  the  powers  in  consequence  of  which 
the  cardinal  exercised  acts  of  such  high  authority.  The 
admiral  of  Castile,  the  Duke  de  Infantado,  and  the 
Conde  de  Benevento,  grandees  of  the  first  rank,  were 
intrusted  with  this  commission.  Ximenes  received  them 
with  cold  civility,  and,  in  answer  to  their  demand, 
produced  the  testament  of  Ferdinand,  by  which  he  was 
appointed  regent,  together  with  the  ratification  of  that 
deed  by  Charles.  To  both  these  they  objected ;  and 
he  endeavoured  to  establish  their  validity.  As  the  con- 
versation grew  warm,  he  led  them  insensibly  towards  a 
balcony,  from  which  they  had  a  view  of  a  large  body 
of  troops  under  arms,  and  of  a  formidable  train  of 
artillery.  "  Behold,"  says  he,  pointing  to  these,  and 
raising  his  voice,  "  the  powers  which  I  have  received 
from  his  Catholic  majesty.  With  these  I  govern  Castile  ; 
and  with  these  I  will  govern  it  until  the  king,  youi 
oaaster  and  mine,  takes  possession  of  his  king- 

J2  Flechier,  Vie  de  Ximtfnfc,  ii  600 


326  fcEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  t 

dom."43  A  declaration  so  bold  and  haughty  silenced  them 
and  astonished  their  associates.  To  take  arms  against  a 
man  aware  of  his  danger  and  prepared  for  his  defence 
was  what  despair  alone  would  dictate.  All  thoughts 
of  a  general  confederacy  against  the  cardinal's  adminis- 
tration were  laid  aside ;  and,  except  for  some  slight  com- 
motions excited  by  the  private  resentment  of  par- 
ticular noblemen,  the  tranquillity  of  Castile  suffered  no 
interruption. 

It  was  not  only  from  the  opposition  of  the  Spanish 
nobility  that  obstacles  arose  to  the  execution  of  the 
cardinal's  schemes ;  he  had  a  constant  struggle  to 
maintain  with  the  Flemish  ministers,  who,  presuming 
upon  their  favour  with  the  young  king,  aimed  at  direct- 
ing the  affairs  of  Spain,  as  well  as  those  of  their  own 
country.  Jealous  of  the  great  abilities  and  independent 
spirit  of  Ximenes,  they  considered  him  rather  as  a  rival 
who  might  circumscribe  their  power  than  as  a  minister 
who  by  his  prudence  and  vigour  was  adding  to  the 
grandeur  and  authority  of  their  master.  Every  com- 
plaint against  his  administration  was  listened  to  with 
pleasure  by  the  courtiers  in  the  Low  Countries.  Un- 
necessary obstructions  were  thrown  by  their  means  in 
the  way  of  all  his  measures ;  and  though  they  could  not 
either  with  decency  or  safety  deprive  him  of  the  office 
of  regent,  they  endeavoured  to  lessen  his  authority  by 
dividing  it.  They  soon  discovered  that  Adrian  of 
Utrecht,  already  joined  with  him  in  office,  had  neither 
genius  nor  spirit  sufficient  to  give  the  least  check  to  his 
proceedings ;  and  therefore  Charles,  by  their  advice, 
added  to  the  commission  of  regency  La  Chau,  a  Flemish 
gentleman,  and  afterwards  Amerstorf,  a  nobleman  of 
Holland,  the  former  distinguished  for  his  address,  the 
latter  for  his  firmness.  Ximenes,  though  no  stranger  to 
the  malevolent  intention  of  the  Flemish  courtiers,  received 

43  Fl&hier,  ii.  551. — Ferreras,  Hist,  viii  433. 


«OOK  i.j  EMPEROK  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  327 

these  new  associates  with,  all  the  external  marks  of  dis- 
tinction due  to  the  office  with  which  they  were  invested; 
but  when  they  came  to  enter  upon  business  he  abated 
nothing  of  that  air  of  superiority  with  which  he  had 
treated  Adrian,  and  still  retained  the  sole  direction  of 
affairs.  The  Spaniards,  more  averse,  perhaps,  than  any 
other  people  to  the  government  of  strangers,  approved  of 
all  his  efforts  to  preserve  his  own  authority.  Even  the 
nobles,  influenced  by  this  national  passion  and  forgetting 
their  jealousies  and  discontents,  chose  rather  to  see  the 
supreme  power  in  the  hands  of  one  of  their  countrymen 
whom  they  feared  than  in  those  of  foreigners,  whom  they 
hated. 

Ximenes,  though  engaged  in  such  great  schemes  of 
domestic  policy  and  embarrassed  by  the  artifices  and 
intrigues  of  the  Flemish  ministers,  had  the  burden  of 
two  foreign  wars  to  support.  The  one  was  in  Navarre, 
which  was  invaded  by  its  unfortunate  monarch,  John 
d'Albret.  The  death  of  Ferdinand,  the  absence  of 
Charles,  the  discord  and  disaffection  which  reigned 
among  the  Spanish  nobles,  seemed  to  present  him  with 
a  favourable  opportunity  of  recovering  his  dominions. 
The  cardinal's  vigilance,  however,  defeated  a  measure 
so  well  concerted.  As  he  foresaw  the  danger  to  which 
that  kingdom  might  be  exposed,  one  of  his  first  acts  of 
administration  was  to  order  thither  a  considerable  body 
of  troops.  While  the  king  was  employed  with  one  part 
of  his  army  in  the  siege  of  St.  Jean  Pied  en  Port,  Villalva, 
an  officer  of  great  experience  and  courage,  attacked  the 
other  by  surprise  and  cut  it  to  pieces.  The  king  in- 
stantly retreated  with  precipitation,  and  an  end  was  put 
to  the  war.44  But  as  Navarre  was  filled  at  that  time 
with  towns  and  castles  slightly  fortified  and  weakly 
garrisoned,  which,  being  unable  to  resist  an  enemy, 
served  only  to  furnish  him  with  places  of  retreat, 

44  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  570. 


328  EEIQN  OP  THE  [BOOK  i, 

Ximenes,  always  bold  and  decisive  in  his  measures, 
ordered  every  one  of  these  to  be  dismantled,  except 
Pampeluna,  the  fortifications  of  which  he  proposed  to 
render  very  strong.  To  this  uncommon  precaution 
Spain  owes  the  possession  of  Navarre.  The  French, 
since  that  period,  have  often  entered  and  have  as  often 
overrun  the  open  country.  While  they  were  exposed 
to  all  the  inconveniences  attending  an  invading  army, 
the  Spaniards  have  easily  drawn  troops  from  the  neigh- 
bouring provinces  to  oppose  them ;  and  the  French, 
having  no  place  of  any  strength  to  which  they  could 
retire,  have  been  obliged  repeatedly  to  abandon  their 
conquest  with  as  much  rapidity  as  they  gained  it. 

The  other  war,  which  he  carried  on  in  Africa  against 
the  famous  adventurer  Horuc  Barbarossa,  who  from  a 
private  corsair  raised  himself,  by  his  singular  valour  and 
address,  to  be  king  of  Algiers  and  Tunis,  was  far  from 
being  equally  successful.  The  ill  conduct  of  the  Spanish 
general  and  the  rash  valour  of  his  troops  presented 
Barbarossa  with  an  easy  victory.  Many  perished  in  the 
battle,  more  in  the  retreat,  and  the  remainder  returned 
into  Spain  covered  with  infamy.  The  magnanimity, 
however,  with  which  the  cardinal  bore  this  disgrace, 
the  only  one  he  experienced  during  his  administration, 
added  new  lustre  to  his  character.45  Great  composure 
of  temper  under  a  disappointment  was  not  expected 
from  a  man  so  remarkable  for  the  eagerness  and  impa- 
tience with  which  he  urged  on  the  execution  of  all  his 
schemes. 

This  disaster  was  soon  forgotten ;  while  the  conduct 
of  the  Flemish  court  proved  the  cause  of  constant  un- 
easiness not  only  to  the  cardinal  but  to  the  whole  Spanish 
nation.  All  the  great  qualities  of  Ghievres,  the  prime 
minister  and  favourite  of  the  young  king,  were  sullied 
with  an  ignoble  and  sordid  avarice.  The  accession  of 

46  Gometius,  lib.  vi  p.  179. 


BOOK  I.]  EMPEROIl  CHAKLES   THE  FIl'TH.  329 

his  master  to  the  crown  of  Spain  opened  a  new  and 
copious  source  for  the  gratification  of  this  passion. 
During  the  time  of  Charles's  residence  in  Flanders  the 
whole  tribe  of  pretenders  to  offices  or  to  favour  resorted 
thither.  They  soon  discovered  that  without  the  patronage 
of  Chievres  it  was  vain  to  hope  for  preferment ;  nor  did 
they  want  sagacity  to  find  out  the  proper  method  of 
securing  his  protection.  Great  sums  of  money  were 
drawn  out  of  Spain.  Every  thing  was  venal  and  dis- 
posed of  to  the  highest  bidder.  After  the  example  of 
Chievres,  the  inferior  Flemish  ministers  engaged  in  this 
traffic,  which  became  as  general  and  avowed  as  it  was 
infamous.46  The  Spaniards  were  filled  with  rage  when 
they  beheld  offices  of  great  importance  to  the  welfare  of 
their  country  set  to  sale  by  strangers,  unconcerned  for 
its  honour  or  its  happiness.  Ximenes,  disinterested  in 
his  whole  administration,  and  a  stranger,  from  his  native 
grandeur  of  mind,  to  the  passion  of  avarice,  inveighed 
with  the  utmost  boldness  against  the  venality  of  the 
Flemings.  He  represented  to  the  king,  in  strong  terms, 
the  murmurs  and  indignation  which  their  behaviour 
excited  among  a  free  and  high-spirited  people,  and 
besought  him  to  set  out  without  loss  of  time  for  Spain, 
that  by  his  presence  he  might  dissipate  the  clouds  which 
were  gathering  all  over  the  kingdom.47 

Charles  was  fully  sensible  that  he  had  delayed  too 
long  to  take  possession  of  his  dominions  in  Spain. 
Powerful  obstacles,  however,  stood  in  his  way  and  de- 
tained him  in  the  Low  Countries.  The  war  which  the 
League  of  Cambray  had  kindled  in  Italy  still  subsisted ; 
though  during  its  course  the  armies  of  all  the  parties 
engaged  in  it  had  changed  their  destination  and  their 
objects.  France  was  now  in  alliance  with  Venice, 
which  it  had  at  first  combined  to  destroy.  Maximilian 
and  Ferdinand  had  for  some  years  earned  on  hostilities 

46  Miniana,  Contin.,  lib.  i.  c.  2.  47  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  576 


330  REIGN   OF  THE  [BOOK  L 

against  France,  their  original  ally,  to  the  valour  of 
whose  troops  the  confederacy  had  been  indebted  in  a 
great  measure  for  its  success.  Together  with  his  king- 
doms, Ferdinand  transmitted  this  war  to  his  grandson  ; 
and  there  was  reason  to  expect  that  Maximilian,  always 
fond  of  new  enterprises,  would  persuade  the  young 
monarch  to  enter  into  it  with  ardour.  But  the  Flemings, 
who  had  long  possessed  an  extensive  commerce,  which 
during  the  League  of  Cambray  had  grown  to  a  great 
height  upon  the  ruins  of  the  Venetian  trade,  dreaded  a 
rupture  with  France  ;  and  Chievres,  sagacious  to  discern 
the  true  interest  of  his  country,  and  not  warped  on  this 
occasion  by  his  love  of  wealth,  warmly  declared  for 
maintaining  peace  with  the  French  nation.  Francis  I., 
destitute  of  allies,  and  solicitous  to  secure  his  late  con- 
quests in  Italy  by  a  treaty,  listened  with  joy  to  the  first 
overtures  of  accommodation.  Chievres  himself  con- 
ducted the  negotiation  in  the  name  of  Charles.  Gouffier 
appeared  as  plenipotentiary  for  Francis.  Each  of  them 
had  presided  over  the  education  of  th«  prince  whom  he 
represented.  They  had  both  adopted  the  same  pacific 
system,  and  were  equally  persuaded  that  the  union  of 
the  two  monarchs  was  the  happiest  event  for  themselves, 
as  well  as  for  their  kingdoms.  In  such  hands  the 
negotiation  did  not  languish.  A  few  days  after  opening 
their  conferences  at  Noyon,  they  concluded  a  treaty  of 
confederacy  and  mutual  defence  between  the  two 
monarchs,  the  chief  articles  in  which  were  that  Francis 
should  give  in  marriage  to  Charles  his  eldest  daughter, 
the  princess  Louise,  an  infant  of  a  year  old,  and,  as  her 
dowry,  should  make  over  to  him  all  his  claims  and  pre- 
tensions upon  the  kingdom  of  Naples ;  that,  in  con- 
sideration of  Charles's  being  already  in  possession  of 
Naples,  he  should,  until  the  accomplishment  of  the  mar- 
riage, pay  a  hundred  thousand  crowns  a  year  to  the 
French  king,  and  the  half  of  that  sum  annually  as  long 


BOOK  L]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  331 

as  the  princess  had  no  children ;  that  when  Charles  shall 
arrive  in  Spain  the  heirs  of  the  king  of  Navarre  may 
represent  to  him  their  right  to  that  kingdom,  and  if, 
after  examining  their  claim,  he  does  not  give  them  satis- 
faction, Francis  shall  be  at  liberty  to  assist  them  with  all 
his  forces.48  This  alliance  not  only  united  Charles  and 
Francis,  but  obliged  Maximilian,  who  was  unable  alone 
to  cope  with  the  French  and  Venetians,  to  enter  into  a 
treaty  with  those  powers,  which  put  a  final  period  to  the 
bloody  and  tedious  war  that  the  League  of  Cambray  had 
occasioned.  Europe  enjoyed  a  few  years  of  universal 
tranquillity,  and  was  indebted  for  that  blessing  to  two 
princes  whose  rivalship  and  ambition  kept  it  in  per- 
petual discord  and  agitation  during  the  remainder  of 
their  reigns. 

By  the  treaty  of  Noyon,  Charles  secured  a  safe  pas- 
sage into  Spain.  It  was  not,  however,  the  interest  of 
his  Flemish  ministers  that  he  should  visit  that  kingdom 
soon.  While  he  resided  in  Flanders,  the  revenues  of 
the  Spanish  crown  were  spent  there,  and  they  engrossed, 
without  any  competitors,  all  the  effects  of  their 
monarch's  generosity ;  their  country  became  the  seat  of 
government,  and  all  favours  were  dispensed  by  them. 
Of  all  these  advantages  they  ran  the  risk  of  seeing 
themselves  deprived  from  the  moment  that  their  sove- 
reign entered  Spain.  The  Spaniards  would  naturally 
assume  the  direction  of  their  own  affairs  ;  the  Low 
Countries  would  be  considered  only  as  a  province  of 
that  mighty  monarchy ;  and  they  who  now  distributed 
the  favours  of  the  prince  to  others  must  then  be  content 
to  receive  them  from  the  hands  of  strangers.  But  what 
Chievres  chiefly  wished  to  avoid  was  an  interview 
between  the  king  and  Ximenes.  On  the  one  hand,  the 
wisdom,  the  integrity,  and  the  magnanimity  of  that 
prelate  gave  him  a  wonderful  ascendant  over  the  minds 

48  Leonard,  Recueil  des  Traites,  toin.  ii.  p.  69. 


332  fcElGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  t. 

of  men ;  and  it  was  extremely  probable  that  these  great 
qualities,  added  to  the  reverence  due  to  his  age  and 
office,  would  command  the  respect  of  a  young  prince 
who,  capable  of  noble  and  generous  sentiments  himself, 
would,  in  proportion  to  his  admiration  of  the  cardinal's 
virtues,  lessen  his  deference  towards  persons  of  another 
character.  Or,  on  the  other  hand,  if  Charles  should 
allow  his  Flemish  favourites  to  retain  all  the  influence 
over  his  councils  which  they  at  present  possessed,  it  was 
easy  to  foresee  that  the  cardinal  would  remonstrate 
loudly  against  such  an  indignity  to  the  Spanish  nation, 
and  vindicate  the  rights  of  his  country  with  the  same 
intrepidity  and  success  with  which  he  had  asserted  the 
prerogatives  of  the  crown.  For  these  reasons,  all  his 
Flemish  councillors  combined  to  retard  his  departure ; 
and  Charles,  unsuspicious,  from  want  of  experience,  and 
fond  of  his  native  country,  suffered  himself  to  be  un- 
necessarily detained  in  the  Netherlands  a  whole  year 
after  signing  the  treaty  of  Noyon. 

The  repeated  entreaties  of  Ximenes,  the  advice  of  his 
grandfather  Maximilian,  and  the  impatient  murmurs  of 
his  Spanish  subjects,  prevailed  on  him  at  last  to  embark. 
He  was  attended  not  only  by  Chievres,  his  prime 
minister,  but  by  a  numerous  and  splendid  train  of  the 
Flemish  nobles,  fond  of  beholding  the  grandeur  or  of 
sharing  in  the  bounty  of  their  prince.  After  a  dan- 
gerous voyage,  he  landed  at  Villa  Viciosa,  in  the 
province  of  Asturias,  and  was  received  with  such  loud 
acclamations  of  joy  as  a  new  monarch,  whose  arrival  was 
so  ardently  desired,  had  reason  to  expect.  The  Spanish 
nobility  resorted  to  their  sovereign  from  all  parts  of 
the  kingdom,  and  displayed  a  magnificence  which  the 
Flemings  were  nnable  to  emulate.49 

Ximenes,  who  considered  the  presence  of  the  king  as 
the  greatest  blessing  to  his  dominions,  was  advancing 

49  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  599,  601. 


BOOK  I.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE   FIFTH.  333 

towards  the  coast  as  fast  as  the  infirm  state  of  his 
health  would  permit,  in  order  to  receive  him.  During 
his  regency,  and  notwithstanding  his  extreme  old  age, 
he  had  abated  in  no  degree  the  rigour  or  frequency  of 
his  mortifications  ;  and  to  these  he  added  such  laborious 
assiduity  in  business  as  would  have  worn  out  the  most 
youthful  and  vigorous  constitution.  Every  day  he 
employed  several  hours  in  devotion  ;  he  celebrated  mass 
in  person ;  he  even  allotted  some  space  for  study.  Not- 
withstanding these  occupations,  he  regularly  attended 
the  council ;  he  received  and  read  all  papers  presented 
to  him;  he  dictated  letters  and  instructions,  and  took 
under  his  inspection  all  business,  civil,  ecclesiastical,  or 
military.  Every  moment  of  his  time  was  filled  up  with 
some  serious  employment.  The  only  amusement  in 
which  he  indulged  himself,  by  way  of  relaxation  after 
business,  was  to  canvass,  with  a  few  friars  and  other 
divines,  some  intricate  article  in  scholastic  theology. 
Wasted  by  such  a  course  of  life,  the  infirmities  of  age 
daily  grew  upon  him.  On  his  journey,  a  violent  dis- 
order seized  him  at  Bos  Equillos,  attended  with  un 
common  symptoms,  which  his  followers  considered  as 
the  effect  of  poison,50  but  could  not  agree  whether  the 
crime  ought  to  be  imputed  to  the  hatred  of  the  Spanish 
nobles  or  to  the  malice  of  the  Flemish  courtiers.  This 
accident  obliging  him  to  stop  short,  he  wrote  to  Charles, 
and  with  his  usual  boldness  advised  him  to  dismiss  all 
the  strangers  in  his  train,  whose  numbers  and  credit 
gave  offence  already  to  the  Spaniards  and  would  ere 
long  alienate  the  affections  of  the  whole  people.  At  the 
same  time,  he  earnestly  desired  to  have  an  interview 
with  the  king,  that  he  might  inform  him  of  the  state  of 
the  nation  and  the  temper  of  his  subjects.  To  prevent 
this,  not  only  the  Flemings  but  the  Spanish  grandees 
employed  all  their  address,  and  industriously  kept 

M  Miniana,  Con  tin.,  lib.  i  c.  3. 


334  EEIGN  OP  THE  [BOOK  i. 

Charles  at  a  distance  from  Aranda,  the  place  to  which 
the  cardinal  had  removed.  Through  their  suggestions, 
every  measure  that  he  recommended  was  rejected,  the 
utmost  care  was  taken  to  make  him  feel,  and  to  point 
out  to  the  whole  nation,  that  his  power  was  on  the 
decline ;  even  in  things  purely  trivial,  such  a  choice  was 
always  made  as  was  deemed  most  disagreeable  to  him. 
Ximenes  did  not  bear  this  treatment  with  his  usual 
fortitude  of  spirit.  Conscious  of  his  own  integrity  and 
merit,  he  expected  a  more  grateful  return  from  a  prince 
to  whom  he  delivered  a  kingdom  more  flourishing  than 
it  had  been  in  any  former  age,  together  with  authority 
more  extensive  and  better  established  than  the  most 
illustrious  of  his  ancestors  had  ever  possessed.  He  could 
not  therefore,  on  many  occasions,  refrain  from  giving 
vent  to  his  indignation  and  complaints.  He  lamented 
the  fate  of  his  country,  and  foretold  the  calamities  which 
it  would  suffer  from  the  insolence,  the  rapaciousness,  and 
ignorance  of  strangers.  While  his  mind  was  agitated  by 
these  passions,  he  received  a  letter  from  the  king,  in 
which,  after  a  few  cold  and  formal  expressions  of  regard, 
he  was  allowed  to  retire  to  his  diocese,  that,  after  a  life 
of  such  continued  labour,  he  might  end  his  days  in  tran- 
quillity. This  message  proved  fatal  to  Ximenes.  His 
haughty  mind,  it  is  probable,  could  not  survive  disgrace ; 
perhaps  his  generous  heart  could  not  bear  the  prospect 
of  the  misfortunes  ready  to  fall  on  his  country.  Which- 
soever of  these  opinions  we  embrace,  certain  it  is  that  he 
expired  a  few  hours  after  reading  the  letter.51  The 
variety,  the  grandeur,  and  the  success  of  his  schemes, 
during  a  regency  of  only  twenty  months,  leave  it  doubt- 
ful whether  his  sagacity  in  council,  his  prudence  in 
conduct,  or  his  boldness  in  execution  deserve  the  greatest 
praise.  His  reputation  is  still  high  in  Spain,  not  only 

61  Marsollier,   Vie   de    Xime'nes,      etc. — Baudier,   Hist,   de   Xime'nea, 
p.  447. — Gometius,  lib.  vii.  p.  206,      ii  p.  208. 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  335 

for  wisdom,  but  for  sanctity ;  and  he  is  the  only  prime 
minister  mentioned  in  history  whom  his  contemporaries 
reverenced  as  a  saint,52  and  to  whom  the  people  under 
his  government  ascribed  the  power  of  working  miracles. 

Soon  after  the  death  of  Ximenes,  Charles  made  his 
public  entry,  with  great  pomp,  into  Yalladolid,  whither 
he  had  summoned  the  cortes  of  Castile.  Though  he 
assumed  on  all  occasions  the  name  of  king,  that  title 
had  never  been  acknowledged  in  the  cortes.  The 
Spaniards  considering  Joanna  as  possessed  of  the  sole 
right  to  the  crown,  and  no  example  of  a  son's  having 
enjoyed  the  title  of  king  during  the  life  of  his  parents 
occurring  in  their  history,  the  cortes  discovered  all  that 
scrupulous  respect  for  ancient  forms,  and  that  aversion 
to  innovation,  which  are  conspicuous  in  popular  assem- 
blies. The  presence,  however,  of  their  prince,  the 
address,  the  artifices,  and  the  threats  of  his  ministers, 
prevailed  on  them  at  last  to  proclaim  him  king,  in  con- 
junction with  his  mother,  whose  name  they  appointed 
to  be  placed  before  that  of  her  son  in  all  public  acts. 
But  when  they  made  this  concession  they  declared 
that  if  at  any  future  period  Joanna  should  recover  the 
exercise  of  reason,  the  whole  authority  should  return 
into  her  hands.  At  the  same  time,  they  voted  a  free 
gift  of  six  hundred  thousand  ducats,  to  be  paid  in 
three  years,  a  sum  more  considerable  than  had  ever  been 
granted  to  any  former  monarch.53 

Notwithstanding  this  obsequiousness  of  the  cortes  to 
the  will  of  the  king,  the  most  violent  symptoms  of  dis- 
satisfaction with  his  government  began  to  break  out  in 
the  kingdom.  Chievres  had  acquired  over  the  mind  of 
the  young  monarch  the  ascendant  not  only  of  a  tutor, 
but  of  a  parent.  Charles  seemed  to  ha»e  no  sentiments 

"  Fldcliier,  Vie  de  Xim^nfes,  ii.  P.  Martyr.  Ep.  608. — Sandoval, 
746.  p.  12. 

53  Miniana,  Contin.,  lib.  i  c.  3. — 


336  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  i. 

but  those  which,  his  minister  inspired,  and  scarcely 
uttered  a  word  but  what  he  put  into  his  mouth.  He 
was  constantly  surrounded  by  Flemings  ;  no  person  got 
access  to  him  without  their  permission ;  nor  was  any 
admitted  to  audience  but  in  their  presence.  As  he  spoke 
the  Spanish  language  very  imperfectly,  his  answers  were 
always  extremely  short,  and  often  delivered  with  hesi- 
tation. From  all  these  circumstances,  many  of  the 
Spaniards  were  led  to  believe  that  he  was  a  prince  of  a 
slow  and  narrow  genius.  Some  pretended  to  discover 
a  strong  resemblance  between  him  and  his  mother,  and 
began  to  whisper  that  his  capacity  for  government  would 
never  be  far  superior  to  hers  ;  and  though  they  who  had 
the  best  opportunity  of  judging  concerning  his  character 
maintained  that,  notwithstanding  such  unpromising  ap- 
pearances, he  possessed  a  large  fund  of  knowledge  as 
well  as  of  sagacity,54  yet  all  agreed  in  condemning  his 
partiality  towards  the  Flemings,  and  his  attachment  to 
his  favourites,  as  unreasonable  and  immoderate.  Un- 
fortunately for  Charles,  these  favourites  were  unworthy 
of  his  confidence.  To  amass  wealth  seems  to  have  been 
their  only  aim ;  and,  as  they  had  reason  to  fear  that 
either  their  master's  good  sense  or  the  indignation  of 
the  Spaniards  might  soon  abridge  their  power,  they 
hastened  to  improve  the  present  opportunity,  and  their 
avarice  was  the  more  rapacious  because  they  expected 
their  authority  to  be  of  no  long  duration.  All  honours, 
offices,  and  benefices  were  either  engrossed  by  the 
Flemings  or  publicly  sold  by  them.  Chievres,  his  wife, 
and  Sauvage,  whom  Charles,  on  the  death  of  Ximenes, 
had  imprudently  raised  to  be  chancellor  of  Castile,  vied 
with  each  other  in  all  the  refinements  of  extortion  and 
venality.  Not  only  the  Spanish  historians,  who,  from 
resentment,  may  be  suspected  of  exaggeration,  but  Peter 
Martyr  Angleria,  an  Italian,  who  resided  at  that  time  in 

54  Sandoval,  p.  31, — P.  Martyr.  Ep.  655. 


POOR  i.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  337 

the  court  of  Spain  and  who  was  under  no  temptation  to 
deceive  the  persons  to  whom  his  letters  are  addressed, 
give  a  description  which  is  almost  incredible  of  the 
insatiable  and  shameless  covetousness  of  the  Flemings. 
According  to  Angleria's  calculation,  which  he  asserts 
to  be  extremely  moderate,  they  remitted  into  the  Low 
Countries,  in  the  space  of  ten  months,  no  less  a  sum 
than  a  million  and  one  hundred  thousand  ducats.  The 
nomination  of  William  de  Croy,  Chievres's  nephew,  a 
young  man  not  of  canonical  age,  to  the  archbishopric 
of  Toledo,  exasperated  the  Spaniards  more  than  all  these 
exactions.  They  considered  the  elevation  of  a  stranger 
to  the  head  of  their  Church  and  to  the  richest  benefice 
in  the  kingdom  not  only  as  an  injury,  but  as  an  insult 
to  the  whole  nation ;  both  clergy  and  laity,  the  former 
from  interest,  the  latter  from  indignation,  joined  in 
exclaiming  against  it.55 

Charles,  leaving  Castile  thus  disgusted  with  his 
administration,  set  out  for  Saragossa,  the  capital  of 
Aragon,  that  he  might  be  present  in  the  cortes  of  that 
kingdom.  On  his  way  thither  he  took  leave  of  his 
brother  Ferdinand,  whom  he  sent  into  Germany  on  the 
pretence  of  visiting  their  grandfather,  Maximilian,  in 
his  old  age.  To  this  prudent  precaution  Charles  owed 
the  preservation  of  his  Spanish  dominions.  During 
the  violent  commotions  which  arose  there  soon  after 
this  period,  the  Spaniards  would  infallibly  have  offered 
the  crown  to  a  prince  who  was  the  darling  of  the  whole 
nation ;  nor  did  Ferdinand  want  ambition,  or  coun- 
sellors, that  might  have  prompted  him  to  accept  of  the 
offer.56 

The  Aragonese  had  not  hitherto  acknowledged  Charles 
as  king,  nor  would  they  allow  the  cortes  to  be  assembled 

55  Sandoval,  pp.  28-31.— P.  Mar-      c.  3,  p.  8. 

tyr.  Ep.,  608,  611,613,  614,  622,  56  P.   Martyr.   Ep.,  619. — Ferre- 

623,  639. — Miniana,  Contin.,  lib.  i       ras,  viii.  460. 

VOL.    I.  » 


338  &EIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  i. 

in  his  name,  but  in  that  of  the  justiza,  to  whom  during 
an  interregnum  this  privilege  belonged.57  The  opposi- 
tion Charles  had  to  struggle  with  in  the  cortes  of 
Aragon  was  more  violent  and  obstinate  than  that  which 
he  had  overcome  in  Castile :  after  long  delays,  how- 
ever, and  with  much  difficulty,  he  persuaded  the  mem- 
bers to  confer  on  him  the  title  of  king,  in  conjunction 
with  his  mother.  At  the  same  time  he  bound  himself, 
by  that  solemn  oath  which  the  Aragonese  exacted  of 
their  kings,  never  to  violate  any  of  their  rights  or 
liberties.  When  a  donative  was  demanded,  the  mem- 
bers were  still  more  intractable ;  many  months  elapsed 
before  they  would  agree  to  grant  Charles  two  hundred 
thousand  ducats,  and  that  sum  they  appropriated  so 
strictly  for  paying  debts  of  the  crown,  which  had  long 
been  forgotten,  that  a  very  small  part  of  it  came  into 
the  king's  hands.  What  had  happened  in  Castile  taught 
them  caution,  and  determined  them  rather  to  satisfy  the 
claims  of  their  fellow-citizens,  how  obsolete  soever,  than 
to  furnish  strangers  the  means  of  enriching  themselves 
with  the  spoils  of  their  country.58 

During  these  proceedings  of  the  cortes,  ambassadors 
arrived  at  Saragossa  from  Francis  I.  and  the  young 
king  of  Navarre,  demanding  the  restitution  of  that 
kingdom  in  terms  of  the  treaty  of  Noyon.  But  neither 
Charles,  nor  the  Castilian  nobles  whom  he  consulted 
on  this  occasion,  discovered  any  inclination  to  part 
with  this  acquisition.  A  conference  held  soon  after  at 
Montpellier,  in  order  to  bring  this  matter  to  an  amicable 
issue,  was  altogether  fruitless  :  while  the  French  urged 
the  injustice  of  the  usurpation,  the  Spaniards  were 
attentive  only  to  its  importance.59 

From  Aragon,  Charles  proceeded  to  Catalonia,  where 
he  wasted  much  time,  encountered  more  difficulties, 

47  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  605.  M  Ibid.,  605,  633,  640 

M  Ibid.,  615-634. 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  ElETH.  339 

and  gained  less  money.  The  Flemings  were  now  be- 
come so  odious  in  every  province  of  Spain  by  their 
exactions  that  the  desire  of  mortifying  them  and  of 
disappointing  their  avarice  augmented  the  jealousy 
with  which  a  free  people  usually  conduct  their  deli- 
berations. 

The  Castilians,  who  had  felt  most  sensibly  the  weight 
and  rigour  of  the  oppressive  schemes  carried  on  by  the 
Flemings,  resolved  no  longer  to  submit  with  a  tameness 
fatal  to  themselves,  and  which  rendered  them  the  ob- 
jects of  scorn  to  their  fellow-subjects  in  the  other  king- 
doms of  which  the  Spanish  monarchy  was  composed. 
Segovia,  Toledo,  Seville,  and  several  other  cities  of  the 
first  rank,  entered  into  a  confederacy  for  the  defence 
of  their  rights  and  privileges;  and,  notwithstanding 
the  silence  of  the  nobility,  who  on  this  occasion  dis- 
covered neither  the  public  spirit  nor  the  resolution 
which  became  their  order,  the  confederates  laid  before 
the  king  a  full  view  of  the  state  of  the  kingdom  and 
of  the  maladministration  of  his  favourites.  The  prefer- 
ment of  strangers,  the  exportation  of  the  current  coin, 
the  increase  of  taxes,  were  the  grievances  of  which 
they  chiefly  complained ;  and  of  these  they  demanded 
redress  with  that  boldness  which  is  natural  to  a  free 
people.  These  remonstrances,  presented  at  first  at 
Saragossa,  and  renewed  afterwards  at  Barcelona,  Charles 
treated  with  great  neglect.  The  confederacy,  however, 
of  these  cities,  at  this  juncture,  was  the  beginning  of 
that  famous  union  among  the  commons  of  Castile, 
which  not  long  after  threw  the  kingdom  into  such 
violent  convulsions  as  shook  the  throne  and  almost  over- 
turned the  constitution.60 

Soon  after  Charles's  arrival  at  Barcelona  he  received 
the  account  of  an  event  which  interested  him  much 
more  than  the  murmurs  of  the  Castilians  or  the  scruples 

60  P.  Martyr.  Ep,,  630.—  Ferreras,  viiL  464. 

l  2 


340  EEIGN  OP  THE  [BOOK  i. 

of  the  cortes  of  Catalonia.  This  was  the  death  of  the 
emperor  Maximilian, — an  occurrence  of  small  impor- 
tance in  itself,  for  he  was  a  prince  conspicuous  neither 
for  his  virtues,  nor  his  power,  nor  his  abilities,  but 
rendered  by  its  consequences  more  memorable  than  any 
that  had  happened  during  several  ages.  It  broke  that 
profound  and  universal  peace  which  then  reigned  in  the 
Christian  world;  it  excited  a  rivalship  between  two 
princes,  which  threw  all  Europe  into  agitation,  and 
kindled  wars  more  general  and  of  longer  duration  than 
had  hitherto  been  known  in  -<nodern  times. 

The  revolutions  occasioned  by  the  expedition  of  the 
French,  king,  Charles  VIII.,  into  Italy,  had  inspired 
the  European  princes  with  new  ideas  concerning  the 
importance  of  the  imperial  dignity.  The  claims  of 
the  empire  upon  some  of  the  Italian  states  were  numer- 
ous ;  its  jurisdiction  over  others  was  extensive ;  and 
though  the  former  had  been  almost  abandoned,  and  the 
latter  seldom  exercised,  under  princes  of  slender  abili- 
ties and  of  little  influence,  it  was  obvious  that  in  the 
hands  of  an  emperor  possessed  of  power  or  of  genius 
they  might  be  employed  as  engines  for  stretching  his 
dominion  over  the  greater  part  of  that  country.  Even 
Maximilian,  feeble  and  UL  steady  as  his  conduct  always 
was,  had  availed  himself  of  the  infinite  pretensions 
of  the  empire,  and  had  reaped  advantage  from  every 
war  and  every  negotiation  in  Italy  during  his  reign. 
These  considerations,  added  to  the  dignity  of  the  station, 
confessedly  the  first  among  Christian  princes,  and  to 
the  rights  inherent  in  the  office,  which,  if  exerted 
with  vigour,  were  far  from  being  inconsiderable,  ren- 
dered the  imperial  crown  more  than  ever  an  object  oi 
ambition. 

Not  long  before  his  death,  Maximilian  had  discovered 
great  solicitude  to  preserve  this  dignity  in  the  Austrian 
family,  and  co  procure  the  king  of  Spain  to  be  chosen 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  341 

his  successor.  But  he  himself  having  never  been 
crowned  by  the  pope,  a  ceremony  deemed  essential  in 
that  age,  was  considered  only  as  emperor  elect.  Though 
historians  have  not  attended  to  that  distinction,  neither 
the  Italian  nor  German  chancery  bestowed  any  other 
title  upon  him  than  that  of  King  of  the  Romans; 
and,  no  example  occurring  in  history  of  any  person's 
being  chosen  a  successor  to  a  king  of  the  Romans,  the 
Germans,  always  tenacious  of  their  forms,  and  unwilling 
to  confer  upon  Charles  an  office  for  which  their  con- 
stitution knew  no  name,  obstinately  refused  to  gratify 
Maximilian  in  that  point.61 

By  his  death  this  difficulty  was  at  once  removed,  and 
Charles  openly  aspired  to  that  dignity  which  his  grand- 
father had  attempted,  without  success,  to  secure  for 
him.  At  the  same  time,  Francis  I.,  a  powerful  rival, 
entered  the  lists  against  him ;  and  the  attention  of  all 
Europe  was  fixed  upon  this  competition,  no  less  illus- 
trious from  the  high  rank  of  the  candidates  than  from 
the  importance  of  the  prize  for  which  they  contended. 
Each  of  them  urged  his  pretensions  with  sanguine 
expectations  and  with  no  unpromising  prospect  of 
success.  Charles  considered  the  imperial  crown  as 
belonging  to  him  of  right,  from  its  long  continuance 
in  the  Austrian  line ;  he  knew  that  none  of  the  German 
princes  possessed  power  or  influence  enough  to  appear 
as  his  antagonist;  he  flattered  himself  that  no  con- 
sideration would  induce  the  natives  of  Germany  to  exalt 
any  foreign  prince  to  a  dignity  which  during  so  many 
ages  had  been  deemed  peculiar  to  their  own  nation, 
and  least  of  all  that  they  would  confer  this  honour  upon 
Francis  I.,  the  sovereign  of  a  people  whose  genius  and 
laws  and  manners  differed  so  widely  from  those  of  the 

61  Guicciardini,  lib.  xiii.  p.  15. —      P.  Heuter.,  Rer.  Austr.,  lib.  vii.  c. 
Hist    gen^r.  d'Allemagne,  par.   P.       17,  p.  179,  lib.  viii  c.  2,  p.  183. 
Barre,  torn,  viii  part  1,  p.  1087. — 


342  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  i. 

Germans  that  it  was  hardly  possible  to  establish  any 
cordial  union  between  them ;  he  trusted  not  a  little  to 
the  effect  of  Maximilian's  negotiations,  which,  though 
they  did  not  attain  their  ends,  had  prepared  the  minds 
of  the  Germans  for  his  elevation  to  the  imperial  throne ; 
but  what  he  relied  on  as  a  chief  recommendation  was 
the  fortunate  situation  of  his  hereditary  dominions  in 
Germany,  which  served  as  a  natural  barrier  to  the  em- 
pire against  the  encroachments  of  the  Turkish  power. 
The  conquests,  the  abilities,  and  the  ambition  of  Sultan 
Selim  II.  had  spread  over  Europe,  at  that  time,  a  general 
and  well-founded  alarm.  By  his  victories  over  the 
Mamelukes,  and  the  extirpation  of  that  gallant  body  of 
men,  he  had  not  only  added  Egypt  and  Syria  to  his 
empire,  but  had  secured  to  it  such  a  degree  of  internal 
tranquillity  that  he  was  ready  to  turn  against  Christen- 
dom the  whole  force  of  his  arms,  which  nothing  hitherto 
had  been  able  to  resist.  The  most  effectual  expedient 
for  stopping  the  progress  of  this  torrent  seemed  to  be 
the  election  of  an  emperor  possessed  of  extensive  terri- 
tories in  that  country  where  its  first  impression  would 
be  felt,  and  who,  besides,  could  combat  this  formid- 
able enemy  with  all  the  forces  of  a  powerful  monarchy 
and  with  all  the  wealth  furnished  by  the  mines  of  the 
New  World  or  the  commerce  of  the  Low  Countries. 
These  were  the  arguments  by  which  Charles  publicly 
supported  his  claim ;  and  to  men  of  integrity  and 
reflection  they  appeared  to  be  not  only  plausible,  but 
convincing.  He  did  not,  however,  trust  the  success 
of  his  cause  to  these  alone.  Great  sums  of  money  were 
remitted  from  Spain ;  all  the  refinements  and  artifices 
of  negotiation  were  employed;  and  a  considerable 
body  of  troops,  kept  on  foot  at  that  time  by  the  states 
of  the  circle  of  Suabia,  was  secretly  taken  into  his 
pay.  The  venal  were  gained  by  presents ;  the  ob- 
jections of  the  more  scrupulous  were  answered  or 


BOOK  i]  EMPEROR  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  343 

eluded ;     some    feeble    princes    were    threatened    and 
overawed.6* 

On  the  other  hand,  Francis  supported  his  claim  with 
equal  eagerness  and  no  less  confidence  of  its  being 
well  founded.  His  emissaries  contended  that  it  was 
now  high  time  to  convince  the  princes  of  the  house  of 
Austria  that  the  imperial  crown  was  elective,  and  not 
hereditary ;  that  other  persons  might  aspire  to  an  honour 
which  their  arrogance  had  accustomed  them  to  regard 
as  the  property  of  their  family;  that  it  required  a 
sovereign  of  mature  judgment  and  of  approved  abilities 
to  hold  the  reins  of  government  in  a  country  where  such 
unknown  opinions  concerning  religion  had  been  pub- 
lished as  had  thrown  the  minds  of  men  into  an  un- 
common agitation,  which  threatened  the  most  violent 
effects ;  that  a  young  prince,  without  experience,  and 
who  had  hitherto  given  no  specimens  of  his  genius  for 
command,  was  no  fit  match  for  Selim,  a  monarch  grown 
old  in  the  art  of  war  and  in  course  of  victory ,  whereas 
a  king  who  in  his  early  youth  had  triumphed  over  the 
valour  and  discipline  of  the  Swiss,  till  then  reckoned 
invincible,  would  be  an  antagonist  not  unworthy  the 
conqueror  of  the  East;  that  the  fire  and  impetuosity 
of  the  French  cavalry,  added  to  the  discipline  and 
stability  of  the  German  infantry,  would  form  an  army 
so  irresistible  that  instead  of  waiting  the  approach  of 
the  Ottoman  forces  it  might  carry  hostilities  into  the 
heart  of  their  dominions ;  that  the  election  of  Charles 
would  be  inconsistent  with  a  fundamental  constitution, 
by  which  the  person  who  holds  the  crown  of  Naples  is 
excluded  from  aspiring  to  the  imperial  dignity ;  that 
his  elevation  to  that  honour  would  soon  kindle  a  war  in 
Italy,  on  account  of  his  pretensions  to  the  duchy  of 
Milan,  the  effects  of  which  could  not  fail  of  reaching 

6i  Guicc.,  lib  xiii.  p.  159. — Slei-  14. — Struvii,  Corp.  Hist  German., 
dan,  History  of  the  Reformation,  ii  971,  note  20. 


344  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  i. 

the  empire  and  might  prove  fatal  to  it.63  But  while 
the  French  amhassadors  enlarged  upon  these  and  other 
topics  of  the  same  kind  in  all  the  courts  of  Germany, 
Francis,  sensible  of  the  prejudices  entertained  against 
him  as  a  foreigner,  unacquainted  with  the  German  lan- 
guage or  manners,  endeavoured  to  overcome  these,  and 
to  gain  the  favour  of  the  princes,  by  immense  gifts  and 
"by  infinite  promises.  As  the  expeditious  method  of 
transmitting  money,  and  the  decent  mode  of  conveying 
a  bribe,  by  bills  of  exchange,  were  then  little  known, 
the  French  ambassadors  travelled  with  a  train  of  horses 
loaded  with  treasure,  an  equipage  not  very  honourable 
for  that  prince  by  whom  they  were  employed,  and 
infamous  for  those  to  whom  they  were  sent.64 

The  other  European  princes  could  not  remain  indif- 
ferent spectators  of  a  contest  the  decision  of  which 
so  nearly  affected  every  one  of  them.  Their  common 
interest  ought  naturally  to  have  formed  a  general  com- 
bination, in  order  to  disappoint  both  competitors  and 
to  prevent  either  of  them  from  obtaining  such  a 
pre-eminence  in  power  and  dignity  as  might  prove 
dangerous  to  the  liberties  of  Europe.  But  the  ideas 
with  respect  to  a  proper  distribution  and  balance  of 
power  were  so  lately  introduced  into  the  system  of 
European  policy  that  they  were  not  hitherto  objects 
of  sufficient  attention.  The  passions  of  some  princes, 
the  want  of  foresight  in  others,  and  the  fear  of  giving 
offence  to  the  candidates,  hindered  such  a  salutary 
union  of  the  powers  of  Europe,  and  rendered  them 
either  totally  negligent  of  the  public  safety  or  kept 
them  from  exerting  themselves  with  vigour  in  its 
behalf. 


83  Guicc.,   lib.    riii   p.     160. —  p.  4, 

Sleid.,   p.    16. — Geor.    Sabini    de          M  M&noireg    du     Marshal     de 

Elect.  Car.  V. — Historia  apud  Scar-  Fleuranges,  p.  296. 
dii   Script.  Ker.   German.,   vol.   ii 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  845 

The  Swiss  cantons,  though  they  dreaded  the  eleva 
tion  of  either  of  the  contending  monarchs,  and  though 
they  wished  to  have  seen  some  prince  whose  dominions 
were  less  extensive,  and  whose  power  was  more  mode- 
rate, seated  on  the  imperial  throne,  were  prompted, 
however,  by  their  hatred  of  the  French  nation,  to  give 
an  open  preference  to  the  pretensions  of  Charles,  while 
they  used  their  utmost  influence  to  frustrate  those  of 
Francis.65 

The  Venetians  easily  discerned  that  it  was  the  in- 
terest of  their  republic  to  have  both  the  rivals  set 
aside  ;  but  their  jealousy  of  the  house  of  Austria, 
whose  ambition  and  neighbourhood  had  been  fatal  to 
their  grandeur,  would  not  permit  them  to  act  up  to 
their  own  ideas,  and  led  them  hastily  to  give  the 
sanction  of  their  approbation  to  the  claim  of  the  French 
king. 

It  was  equally  the  interest,  and  more  in  the  power, 
of  Henry  VIII.  of  England  to  prevent  either  Francis 
or  Charles  from  acquiring  a  dignity  which  would  raise 
them  so  far  above  other  monarchs.  But,  though  Henry 
often  boasted  that  he  held  the  balance  of  Europe  in  his 
hands,  he  had  neither  the  steady  attention,  the  accurate 
discernment,  nor  the  dispassionate  temper  which  that 
delicate  function  required.  On  this  occasion  it  morti- 
fied his  vanity  so  much,  to  think  that  he  had  not 
entered  early  into  that  noble  competition  which  re- 
flected such  honour  upon  the  two  antagonists,  that  he 
took  a  resolution  of  sending  an  ambassador  into  Ger- 
many and  of  declaring  himself  a  candidate  for  the 
imperial  throne.  The  ambassador,  though  loaded  with 
caresses  by  the  German  princes  and  the  pope's  nuncio, 
informed  his  master  that  he  could  hope  for  no  success 
in  a  claim  which  he  had  been  so  late  in  preferring. 
Henry,  imputing  his  disappointment  to  that  circum- 

65  Sabinus,  p.  6. 


846  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  i. 

stance  alone,  and  soothed  with  this  ostentatious  display 
of  his  own  importance,  seems  to  have  taken  no  further 
part  in  the  matter,  either  by  contributing  to  thwart 
both  his  rivals  or  to  promote  one  of  them.66 

Leo  X.,  a  pontiff  no  less  renowned  for  his  political 
abilities  than  for  his  love  of  the  arts,  was  the  only 
prince  of  the  age  who  observed  the  motions  of  the  two 
contending  monarchs  with  a  prudent  attention  or  who 
discovered  a  proper  solicitude  for  the  public  safety. 
The  imperial  and  papal  jurisdiction  interfered  in  so 
many  instances,  the  complaints  of  usurpation  were  so 
numerous  on  both  sides,  and  the  territories  of  the 
Church  owed  their  security  so  little  to  their  own  force 
and  so  much  to  the  weakness  of  the  powers  around 
them,  that  nothing  was  so  formidable  to  the  court  of 
liome  as  an  emperor  with  extensive  dominions  or  of 
enterprising  genius.  Leo  trembled  at  the  prospect  of 
beholding  the  imperial  crown  placed  on  the  head  of 
the  king  of  Spain  and  of  Naples  and  the  master  of  the 
New  World ;  nor  was  he  less  afraid  of  seeing  a  king 
of  France,  who  was  duke  of  Milan  and  lord  of  Genoa, 
exalted  to  that  dignity.  He  foretold  that  the  election 
of  either  of  them  would  be  fatal  to  the  independence 
of  the  holy  see,  to  the  peace  of  Italy,  and  perhaps  to 
the  liberties  of  Europe.  But  to  oppose  them  with  any 
prospect  of  success  required  address  and  caution  in 
proportion  to  the  greatness  of  their  power  and  their 
opportunities  of  taking  revenge.  Leo  was  defective  in 
neither.  He  secretly  exhorted  the  German  princes  to 
place  one  of  their  own  number  on  the  imperial  throne, 
which  many  of  them  were  capable  of  filling  with 
honour.  He  put  them  in  mind  of  the  constitution  by 
which  the  kings  of  Naples  were  forever  excluded  from 
that  dignity.67  He  warmly  exhorted  the  French  king 

66  M&noires  de  Fleuranges,  314.  67  Goldasti,  Constitutiones  Impe- 

— Herbert,  History  of  Henry  VIII,      riales,  Francof.,  1 763,  voL  i  p.  439. 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEEOB  OHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  347 

to  persist  in  his  claim,  not  from  any  desire  that  he 
should  gain  his  end,  but,  as  he  foresaw  that  the  Ger- 
mans would  be  more  disposed  to  favour  the  king  of 
Spain,  he  hoped  that  Francis  himself,  when  he  dis- 
covered his  own  chance  of  success  to  be  desperate, 
would  be  stimulated  by  resentment  and  the  spirit  of 
rivalship  to  concur  with  all  his  interest  in  raising  some 
third  person  to  the  head  of  the  empire ;  or,  on  the  other 
hand,  if  Francis  should  make  an  unexpected  progress, 
he  did  not  doubt  but  that  Charles  would  be  induced, 
by  similar  motives,  to  act  the  same  part ;  and  thus,  by 
a  prudent  attention,  the  mutual  jealousy  of  the  two 
rivals  might  be  so  dexterously  managed  as  to  disappoint 
both.  But  this  scheme,  the  only  one  which  a  prince 
in  Leo's  situation  could  adopt,  though  concerted  with 
great  wisdom,  was  executed  with  little  discretion.  The 
French  ambassadors  in  Germany  fed  their  master  with 
vain  hopes ;  the  pope's  nuncio,  being  gained  by  them, 
altogether  forgot  the  instructions  which  he  had  re- 
ceived ;  and  Francis  persevered  so  long  and  with  such 
obstinacy  in  urging  his  own  pretensions  as  rendered  all 
Leo's  measures  abortive.68 

Such  were  the  hopes  of  the  candidates,  and  the 
views  of  the  different  princes,  when  the  diet  was 
opened  according  to  form  at  Frankfort.  The  right  of 
choosing  an  emperor  had  long  been  vested  in  seven 
great  princes,  distinguished  by  the  name  of  electors, 
the  origin  of  whose  office,  as  well  as  the  nature  and 
extent  of  their  powers,  have  already  been  explained. 
These  were,  at  that  time,  Albert  of  Brandenburg, 
archbishop  of  Mentz ;  Herman  Count  de  Wied,  arch- 
bishop of  Cologne ;  Eichard  de  Greiffenklau,  arch- 
bishop of  Triers ;  Lewis,  king  of  Bohemia ;  Lewis, 
count  palatine  of  the  Rhine ;  Frederic,  duke  of  Saxony ; 
and  Joachim  I.,  marquis  of  Brandenburg.  Notwith- 

w  Guicciar.,  lib.  xiii,  161, 


348  REIGN  OP  THE  [BOOK  I. 

standing  the  artful  arguments  produced  by  the  am- 
bassadors of  the  two  kings  in  favour  of  their  respective 
masters,  and  in  spite  of  all  their  solicitations,  intrigues, 
and  presents,  the  electors  did  not  forget  that  maxim 
on  which  the  liberty  of  the  German  constitution  was 
thought  to  be  founded.  Among  the  members  of  the 
Germanic  body,  which  is  a  great  republic  composed  of 
states  almost  independent,  the  first  principle  of  patriotism 
is  to  depress  and  limit  the  power  of  the  emperor ;  and 
of  this  idea,  so  natural  under  such  a  form  of  govern- 
ment, a  German  politician  seldom  loses  sight.  No 
prince  of  considerable  power  or  extensive  dominions 
had  for  some  ages  been  raised  to  the  imperial  throne. 
To  this  prudent  precaution  many  of  the  great  families 
in  Germany  owed  the  splendour  and  independence 
which  they  had  acquired  during  that  period.  To 
elect  either  of  the  contending  monarchs  would  have 
been  a  gross  violation  of  that  salutary  maxim,  would 
have  given  to  the  empire  a  master  instead  of  a  head, 
and  would  have  reduced  themselves  from  the  rank 
of  being  almost  his  equals  to  the  condition  of  his 
subjects. 

Full  of  these  ideas,  all  the  electors  turned  their  eyes 
towards  Frederic,  duke  of  Saxony,  a  prince  of  such 
eminent  virtue  and  abilities  as  to  be  distinguished  by 
the  name  of  the  sage,  and  with  one  voice  they  offered 
him  the  imperial  crown.  He  was  not  dazzled  with 
that  object,  which  monarchs  so  far  superior  to  him  in 
power  courted  with  such  eagerness  ;  and,  after  de- 
liberating upon  the  matter  a  short  time,  he  rejected 
it  with  a  magnanimity  and  disinterestedness  no  less 
singular  than  admirable.  "  Nothing,"  he  observed, 
"  could  be  more  impolitic  than  an  obstinate  adherence 
to  a  maxim  which,  though  sound  and  just  in  many 
cases,  was  not  applicable  to  all.  In  times  of  tran- 
quillity," said  he,  "  we  wish  for  an  emperor  who  has 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  349 

not  power  to  invade  our  liberties  ;  times  of  danger 
demand  one  who  is  able  to  secure  our  safety.  The 
Turkish  armies,  led  by  a  gallant  and  victorious  mon- 
arch, are  now  assembling.  They  are  ready  to  pour  in 
upon  Germany  with  a  violence  unknown  in  former 
ages.  New  conjunctures  call  for  new  expedients.  The 
imperial  sceptre  must  be  committed  to  some  hand 
more  powerful  than  mine  or  that  of  any  other  German 
prince.  We  possess  neither  dominions,  nor  revenues, 
nor  authority,  which  enable  us  to  encounter  such  a 
formidable  enemy.  Kecourse  must  be  had  in  this 
exigency  to  one  of  the  rival  monarchs.  Each  of  them 
can  bring  into  the  field  forces  sufficient  for  our  de- 
fence. But  as  the  king  of  Spain  is  of  German  extrac- 
tion, as  he  is  a  member  and  prince  of  the  empire  by 
the  territories  which  descend  to  him  from  his  grand- 
father, as  his  dominions  stretch  along  that  frontier 
which  lies  most  exposed  to  the  enemy,  his  claim  is 
preferable,  in  my  opinion,  to  that  of  a  stranger  to  our 
language,  to  our  blood,  and  to  our  country  ;  and  there- 
fore 1  give  my  vote  to  confer  on  him  the  imperial  crown." 
This  opinion,  dictated  by  such  uncommon  generosity 
and  supported  by  arguments  so  plausible,  made  a  deep 
impression  on  the  electors.  The  king  of  Spain's  am- 
bassadors, sensible  of  the  important  service  which 
Frederic  had  done  their  master,  sent  him  a  consider- 
able sum  of  money,  as  the  first  token  of  that  prince's 
gratitude.  But  he  who  had  greatness  of  mind  to  refuse 
a  crown  disdained  to  receive  a  bribe ;  and,  upon  their 
entreating  that  at  least  he  would  permit  them  to  dis- 
tribute part  of  that  sum  among  his  attendants,  he 
replied  that  he  could  not  prevent  them  from  accepting 
what  should  be  offered,  but  whoever  took  a  single  florin 
should  be  dismissed  next  morning  from  his  service.69 

9  P.  Daniel,  an  historian  of  con-      question  the  truth  of  this  account 
si '  rable   name,   seems  to  call   in      of  Frederic's  behaviour  in  refusing 


350  fcEiGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  i. 

No  prince  in  Germany  could  now  aspire  to  a  dignity 
which  Frederic  had  declined,  for  reasons  applicable  to 
them  all.  It  remained  to  make  a  choice  between  the 
two  great  competitors.  But  besides  the  prejudice  in 
Charles's  favour  arising  from  his  birth,  as  well  as  the 
situation  of  his  German  dominions,  he  owed  not  a 
little  to  the  abilities  of  the  Cardinal  de  Gurk,  and  the 
zeal  of  Erard  de  la  Mark,  bishop  of  Liege,  two  of  his 
ambassadors,  who  had  conducted  their  negotiations 
with  more  prudence  and  address  than  those  intrusted 
by  the  French  king.  The  former,  who  had  long  been 
the  minister  and  favourite  of  Maximilian,  was  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  art  of  managing  the  Germans ;  and 
the  latter,  having  been  disappointed  of  a  cardinal's  hat 
by  Francis,  employed  all  the  malicious  ingenuity  with 
which  the  desire  for  revenge  inspires  an  ambitious 
mind,  in  thwarting  the  measures  of  that  monarch. 
The  Spanish  party  among  the  electors  daily  gained 
ground ;  and  even  the  pope's  nuncio,  being  convinced 
that  it  was  vain  to  make  any  further  opposition,  en- 
deavoured to  acquire  some  merit  with  the  future  em- 
peror, by  offering  voluntarily,  in  the  name  of  his  master, 
a  dispensation  to  hold  the  imperial  crown  in  conjunction 
with  that  of  Naples.70 

the  imperial  crown,  because  it  is  express.  Seckendorf,  in  his  Coin- 
not  mentioned  by  Georgius  Sabinus  mentarius  Historicus  et  Apologeti- 
in  his  History  of  the  Election  and  cus  de  Lutheranismo,  p.  121,  has 
Coronation  of  Charles  V.,  torn.  iii.  examined  this  fact  with  his  usual 
p.  63.  But  no  great  stress  ought  to  industry,  and  has  established  its 
be  laid  on  an  omission  in  a  super-  truth  by  the  most  undoubted  evi- 
ficial  author,  whose  treatise,  though  dence.  To  these  testimonies  which 
dignified  with  the  name  of  History,  he  has  collected,  I  may  arid  the  de- 
contains  only  such  an  account  of  cisive  one  of  Cardinal  Cajetan,  the 
the  ceremonial  of  Charles's  election  pope's  legate  at  Frankfort,  in  his 
as  is  usually  published  in  Germany  letter,  July  5th,  1519.  Epistros 
on  like  occasions.  (Scard.  Eer.  des  Princes,  &c.,  recueillies  par  Rus- 
Germ.  Script,  voL  iL  p.  1.)  The  celli,  traduictes  par  Belforest,  Par., 
testimony  of  Erasmus,  lib.  xiii  epist.  1572,  p.  60. 
4,  and  that  of  Sleidan,  p.  18,  are  7U  Freheri  Her.  German.  Scrip- 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEROB  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  351 

On  the  28th  of  June,  five  months  and  ten  days  after 
che  death  of  Maximilian,  this  important  contest,  which 
had  held  all  Europe  in  suspense,  was  decided.  Six  of 
the  electors  had  already  declared  for  the  king  of  Spain  ; 
and  the  archbishop  of  Triers,  the  only  firm  adherent  to 
the  French  interest,  having  at  last  joined  his  brethren, 
Charles  was,  by  the  unanimous  voice  of  the  electoral 
college,  raised  to  the  imperial  throne.71 

But  though  the  electors  consented,  from  various 
motives,  to  promote  Charles  to  that  high  station,  they 
discovered  at  the  same  time  great  jealousy  of  his  ex- 
traordinary power,  and  endeavoured,  with  the  utmost 
solicitude,  to  provide  against  his  encroaching  on  the 
privileges  of  the  Germanic  body.  It  had  long  been 
the  custom  to  demand  of  every  new  emperor  a  con- 
firmation of  these  privileges,  and  to  require  a  promise 
that  he  never  would  violate  them  in  any  instance. 
While  princes  who  were  formidable  neither  from  extent 
of  territory  nor  of  genius  possessed  the  imperial  throne, 
a  general  and  verbal  engagement  to  this  purpose  was 
deemed  sufficient  security.  But,  under  an  emperor  so 
powerful  as  Charles,  other  precautions  seemed  neces- 
sary. A  capitulation,  or  claim  of  right,  was  formed,  in 
which  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  the  electors,  of 
the  princes  of  the  empire,  of  the  cities,  and  of  every  other 
member  of  the  Germanic  body,  are  enumerated.  This 
capitulation  was  immediately  signed  by  Charles's  am- 
bassadors in  the  name  of  their  master,  and  he  himself, 
at  his  coronation,  confirmed  it  in  the  most  solemn 
manner.  Since  that  period,  the  electors  have  continued 
to  prescribe  the  same  conditions  to  all  his  successors ; 
and  the  capitulation,  or  mutual  contract  between  the 
emperor  and  his  subjects,  is  considered  in  Germany  as 

tores,  vol.  iii.  172,  cur.  Struvii,  AT-  71  Jac.  Aug.  Thuan.,  Hist,  sui 
gent,  1717. — Giannone,  Hist,  of  Temporis,  edit  Bulkley,  lib.  i.  c.  9. 
Naples,  ii.  495. 


EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  I. 

a  strong  barrier  against  the  progress  of  the  imperial 
power,  and  as  the  great  charter  of  their  liberties,  to 
which  they  often  appeal.72 

The  important  intelligence  of  his  election  was  con- 
veyed in  nine  days  from  Frankfort  to  ]  Barcelona,  where 
Charles  was  still  detained  by  the  obstinacy  of  the  Cata- 
lonian  cortes,  which  had  not  hitherto  brought  to  an 
issue  any  of  the  affairs  which  camo  before  it.  He  re- 
ceived the  account  with  the  joy  natural  to  a  young  and 
aspiring  mind  on  an  accession  of  power  and  dignity 
which  raised  him.  so  far  above  the  other  princes  of 
Europe.  Then  it  was  that  those  vast  prospects  which 
allured  him  during  his  whole  administration  began  to 
open,  and  from  this  era  we  may  date  the  formation,  and 
are  able  to  trace  the  gradual  progress,  of  a  grand  system 
of  enterprising  ambition,  which  renders  the  history  of 
his  reign  so  worthy  of  attention. 

A  trivial  circumstance  first  discovered  the  effects  of 
this  great  elevation  on  the  mind  of  Charles.  In  all  the 
public  writs  which  he  now  issued  as  king  of  Spain,  he 
assumed  the  title  of  majesty,  and  required  it  from  his 
subjects  as  a  mark  of  their  respect.  Before  that  time, 
all  the  monarchs  of  Europe  were  satisfied  with  the 
appellation  of  highness  or  grace;  but  the  vanity  of 
other  courts  soon  led  them  to  imitate  the  example  of 
the  Spanish.  The  epithet  of  majesty  is  no  longer  a 
mark  of  pre-eminence.  The  most  inconsiderable  mon- 
archs in  Europe  enjoy  it,  and  the  arrogance  of  the 
greater  potentates  has  invented  no  higher  denomina- 
tions.73 

The  Spaniards  were  far  from  viewing  the  promotion 
of  their  king  to  the  imperial  throne  with  the  same 

72  Pfeffel,  Abrade  1'HiBtoiredu          73  Minianae  Contin.  Mar.,  p.  13. 

Droit  publique  d'Allemagne,  590. —  — Ferreras,    viii.    475. — M&noires 

Limnei   Capitulat    Imp. — Epistres  Hist,  de  la  Houssaie,  torn.  i.  p.  53, 

dea  Princes  par  Ruscelli,  p.  60.  etc. 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEROR  OHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  353 

satisfaction  which  he  himself  felt.  To  be  deprived  of 
the  presence  of  their  sovereign,  and  to  be  subjected  to 
the  government  of  a  viceroy  and  his  conncil,  a  species 
of  administration  often  oppressive  and  always  disagree- 
able, were  the  immediate  and  necessary  consequences 
of  this  new  dignity.  To  see  the  blood  of  their  country- 
men shed  in  quarrels  wherein  the  nation  had  no  concern, 
to  behold  its  treasures  wasted  in  supporting  the  splen- 
dour of  a  foreign  title,  to  be  plunged  in  the  chaos  of 
Italian  and  German  politics,  were  effects  of  this  event 
almost  as  unavoidable.  From  all  these  considerations, 
they  concluded  that  nothing  could  have  happened  more 
pernicious  to  the  Spanish  nation;  and  the  fortitude 
and  public  spirit  of  their  ancestors,  who,  in  the  cortes 
of  Castile,  prohibited  Alphonso  the  Wise  from  leaving 
the  kingdom  in  order  to  receive  the  imperial  crown, 
were  often  mentioned  with  the  highest  praise,  and 
pronounced  to  be  extremely  worthy  of  imitation  at  this 
juncture.74 

But  Charles,  without  regarding  the  sentiments  or 
murmurs  of  his  Spanish  subjects,  accepted  of  the  im- 
perial dignity  which  the  count  palatine,  at  the  head  of 
a  solemn  embassy,  offered  him  in  the  name  of  the 
electors,  and  declared  his  intention  of  setting  out  soon 
for  Germany  in  order  to  take  possession  of  it.  This 
was  the  more  necessary  because,  according  to  the  forms 
of  the  German  constitution,  he  could  not,  before  the 
ceremony  of  a  public  coronation,  exercise  any  act  of 
jurisdiction  or  authority.78 

Their  certain  knowledge  of  this  resolution  augmented 
so  much  the  disgust  of  the  Spaniards  that  a  sullen  and 
refractory  spirit  prevailed  among  persons  of  all  ranks. 
The  pope  having  granted  the  king  the  tenths  of  all 
ecclesiastical  benefices  in  Castile,  to  assist  him  in  carry- 

74  Sandoval,  L  p.  32. — Minianae          76  Sabinus,  P.  Barre,  viii.  1086. 
Contin.,  p.  14. 

VOL.  i.  A  A 


854  EEIGN  OF  THE  [ROOK  L 

ing  on  war  with  greater  vigour  against  the  Turks,  a  con- 
vocation of  the  clergy  unanimously  refused  to  levy  that 
sum,  upon  pretence  that  it  ought  never  to  be  exacted 
but  at  those  times  when  Christendom  was  actually  in- 
vaded by  the  infidels;  and  though  Leo,  in  order  to 
support  his  authority,  laid  the  kingdom  under  an  in- 
terdict, so  little  regard  was  paid  to  a  censure  which  was 
universally  deemed  unjust,  that  Charles  himself  applied 
to  have  it  taken  off.  Thus  the  Spanish  clergy,  besides 
their  merit  in  opposing  the  usurpations  of  the  pope  and 
disregarding  the  influence  of  the  crown,  gained  the 
exemption  which  they  had  claimed.76 

The  commotions  which  arose  in  the  kingdom  of 
Valencia,  annexed  to  the  crown  of  Aragon,  were  more 
formidable,  and  produced  more  dangerous  and  lasting 
effects.  A  seditious  monk  having  by  his  sermons  ex- 
cited the  citizens  of  Valencia,  the  capital  city,  to  take 
arms,  and  to  punish  certain  criminals  in  a  tumultuary 
manner,  the  people,  pleased  with  this  exercise  of  power, 
and  with  such  a  discovery  of  their  own  importance, 
not  only  refused  to  lay  down  their  arms,  but  formed 
themselves  into  troops  and  companies,  that  they  might 
be  regularly  trained  to  martial  exercises.  To  obtain 
some  security  against  the  oppression  of  the  grandees 
was  the  motive  of  this  association,  and  proved  a  power- 
ful boiid  of  union ;  for  as  the  aristocratical  privileges 
and  independence  were  more  complete  in  Valencia  than 
in  any  other  of  the  Spanish  kingdoms,  the  nobles,  being 
scarcely  accountable  for  their  conduct  to  any  superior, 
treated  the  people  not  only  as  vassals  but  as  slaves. 
They  were  alarmed,  however,  at  the  progress  of  this 
unexpected  insurrection,  as  it  might  encourage  the 
people  to  attempt  shaking  off  the  yoke  altogether ;  but, 
as  they  could  not  repress  them  without  taking  arms,  it 
became  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  the  emperor,  and 

76  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  462.—  Ferreras,  viii  473. 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  355 

to  desire  his  permission  to  attack  them.  At  the  same 
time  the  people  made  choice  of  deputies  to  represent 
their  grievances  and  to  implore  the  protection  of  their 
sovereign.  Happily  for  the  latter,  they  arrived  at  court 
when  Charles  was  exasperated  to  a  high  degree  against 
the  nobility.  As  he  was  eager  to  visit  Germany,  where 
his  presence  became  every  day  more  necessary,  and  as 
his  Flemish  courtiers  were  still  more  impatient  to  return 
into  their  native  country,  that  they  might  carry  thithef 
the  spoils  which  they  had  amassed  in  Castile,  it  was 
impossible  for  him  to  hold  the  cortes  of  Valencia  in  per- 
son. He  had  for  that  reason  empowered  the  Cardinal 
Adrian  to  represent  him  in  that  assembly,  and  in  his 
name  to  receive  their  oath  of  allegiance,  to  confirm  their 
privileges  with  the  usual  solemnities,  and  to  demand  of 
them  a  free  gift.  But  the  Yalencian  nobles,  who  con- 
sidered this  measure  as  an  indignity  to  their  country  > 
which  was  no  less  entitled  than  his  other  kingdoms  to 
the  honour  of  their  sovereign's  presence,  declared  that 
by  the  fundamental  laws  of  the  constitution  they  could 
neither  acknowledge  as  king  a  person  who  was  absent, 
jior  grant  him  any  subsidy ;  and  to  this  declaration  they 
adhered  with  a  haughty  and  inflexible  obstinacy. 
Charles,  piqued  by  their  behaviour,  decided  in  favour 
of  the  people,  and  rashly  authorized  them  to  continue  in 
arms.  Their  deputies  returned  in  triumph,  and  were 
received  by  their  fellow-citizens  as  the  deliverers  of 
their  country.  The  insolence  of  the  multitude  increas- 
ing with  their  success,  they  expelled  all  the  nobles  out 
of  the  city,  committed  the  government  to  magistrates  of 
their  own  election,  and  entered  into  an  association,  dis- 
tinguished by  the  name  of  germanada  or  brotherhood, 
which  proved  the  source  not  only  of  the  wildest  dis- 
orders, but  of  the  most  fatal  calamities,  in  that  king- 
dom.77 

77  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  651. — Ferreras,  viii.  376,  485. 

A  A2 


356  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  i. 

Meanwhile,  the  kingdom  of  Castile  was  agitated  with 
no  less  violence.  No  sooner  was  the  emperor's  intention 
to  leave  Spain  made  known,  than  several  cities  of  the 
first  rank  resolved  to  remonstrate  against  it,  and  to  crave 
redress  once  more  of  those  grievances  which  they  had 
formerly  laid  before  him.  Charles  artfully  avoided  ad- 
mitting their  deputies  to  audience  ;  and,  as  he  saw  from 
this  circumstance  how  difficult  it  would  be  at  this  junc- 
•ture  to  restrain  the  mutinous  spirit  of  the  greater  cities, 
he  summoned  the  cortes  of  Castile  to  meet  at  Compos- 
tella,  a  town  in  Galicia.  His  only  reason  for  calling  that 
assembly  was  the  hope  of  obtaining  another  donative ; 
for,  as  his  treasury  had  been  exhausted  in  the  same 
proportion  that  the  riches  of  his  ministers  increased, 
he  could  not,  without  some  additional  aid,  appear  in 
Germany  with  splendour  suited  to  the  imperial  dignity. 
To  appoint  a  meeting  of  the  cortes  in  so  remote  a 
province,  and  to  demand  a  new  subsidy  before  the  time 
for  paying  the  former  was  expired,  were  innovations  of 
a  most  dangerous  tendency,  and  among  a  people  not 
only  jealous  of  their  liberties,  but  accustomed  to  supply 
the  wants  of  their  sovereigns  with  a  very  frugal  hand, 
excited  a  universal  alarm.  The  magistrates  of  Toledo 
remonstrated  against  both  these  measures  in  a  very  high 
tone ;  the  inhabitants  of  Yalladolid,  who  expected  that 
the  cortes  should  have  been  held  in  that  city,  were  so 
enraged  that  they  took  arms  in  a  tumultuary  manner ; 
and  if  Charles,  with  his"  foreign  counsellors,  had  not 
fortunately  made  their  escape  during  a  violent  tempest, 
they  would  have  massacred  all  the  Flemings,  and  have 
prevented  him  from  continuing  his  journey  towards 
Compostella. 

Every  city  through  which  he  passed  petitioned  against 
holding  a  cortes  in  Galicia,  a  point  with  regard  to  which 
Charles  was  inflexible.  But  though  the  utmost  influ- 
ence had  been  exerted  by  the  ministers  in  order  to  pro- 


BOOK  i.]  EMPEROR  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  357 

cure  a  choice  of  representatives  favourable  to  their 
designs,  such  was  the  temper  of  the  nation  that  at  the 
opening  of  the  assembly  there  appeared  among  many 
of  the  members  unusual  symptoms  of  ill-humour,  which 
threatened  a  fierce  opposition  to  all  the  measures  of  the 
court.  No  representatives  were  sent  by  Toledo ;  for 
the  lot,  according  to  which,  by  ancient  custom,  the 
election  was  determined  in  that  city,  having  fallen  upon 
two  persons  devoted  to  the  Flemish  ministers,  their 
fellow-citizens  refused  to  grant  them  a  commission  in 
the  usual  form,  and  in  their  stead  made  choice  of  two 
deputies,  whom  they  empowered  to  repair  to  Compos- 
tella  and  to  protest  against  the  lawfulness  of  the  cortes 
assembled  there.  The  representatives  of  Salamanca 
refused  to  take  the  usual  oath  of  fidelity  unless  Charles 
consented  to  change  the  place  of  meeting.  Those  of 
Toro,  Madrid,  Cordova,  and  several  other  places  declared 
the  demand  of  another  donative  to  be  unprecedented, 
unconstitutional,  and  unnecessary.  All  the  arts,  how- 
ever, which  influence  popular  assemblies,  bribes,  pro- 
mises, threats,  and  even  force,  were  employed  in  order 
to  gain  members.  The  nobles,  soothed  by  the  respectful 
assiduity  with  which  Chievres  and  the  other  Flemings 
paid  court  to  them,  or  instigated  by  a  mean  jealousy  of 
that  spirit  of  independence  which  they  saw  rising  among 
the  commons,  openly  favoured  the  pretensions  of  the 
.  court,  or  at  the  utmost  did  not  oppose  them ;  and  at 
last,  in  contempt  not  only  of  the  sentiments  of  the 
nation,  but  of  the  ancient  forms  of  the  constitution, 
a  majority  voted  to  grant  the  donative  for  which  the 
emperor  had  applied.78  Together  with  this  grant, 
the  cortes  laid  before  Charles  a  representation  of  those 
grievances  whereof  his  people  complained,  and  in  their 
name  craved  redress;  but  he,  having  obtained  from 
them  all  that  he  could  expect,  paid  no  attention  to  this 
78  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  663. — Sandoval,  p.  32,  etc. 


358  BEIGN  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  [BOOK  t. 

ill-timed  petition,  which  it  was  no  longer  dangerous  to 
disregard.79 

As  nothing  now  retarded  his  embarkation,  he  dis- 
closed his  intention  with  regard  to  the  regency  of  Castile 
during  his  absence,  which  he  had  hitherto  kept  secret, 
and  nominated  Cardinal  Adrian  to  that  office.  The 
viceroyalty  of  Aragon  he  conferred  on  Don  John  de 
Lanuza ;  that  of  Valencia  on  Don  Diego  de  Mendoza, 
Conde  de  Melito.  The  choice  of  the  two  latter  was 
universally  acceptable  ;  but  the  advancement  of  Adrian, 
though  the  only  Fleming  who  had  preserved  any  re- 
putation among  the  Spaniards,  animated  the  Castilians 
with  new  hatred  against  foreigners;  and  even  the 
nobles,  who  had  so  tamely  suffered  other  inroads  upon 
the  constitution,  felt  the  indignity  offered  to  their  own 
order  by  his  promotion,  and  remonstrated  against  it  as 
being  illegal.  But  Charles's  desire  of  visiting  Germany, 
as  well  as  the  impatience  of  his  ministers  to  leave  Spain, 
were  now  so  much  increased  that,  without  attending  to 
the  murmurs  of  the  Castilians,  or  even  taking  time  to 
provide  any  remedy  against  an  insurrection  in  Toledo, 
which  at  that  time  threatened,  and  afterwards  produced, 
most  formidable  effects,  he  sailed  from  Corunna  on  the 
22d  of  May ;  and  by  setting  out  so  abruptly  in  quest  of 
a  new  crown  he  endangered  a  more  important  one  of 
which  he  was  already  in  possession.80 

79  Sandoval,  p.  84.  *  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  670.— Sandoval,  p.  86. 


BOOK    II. 


Rivalry  between  Charles  and  Francis  I.  for  the  Empire. — They  negotiate 
with  the  Pope,  the  Venetians,  and  Henry  VIII.  of  England. — 
Character  of  the  latter. — Cardinal  Wolsey. — Charles  visits  England. — 
Meeting  between  Henry  VIII.  and  Francis  I. — Coronation  of  Charles. 
— Solyman  the  Magnificent. — The  Diet  convoked  at  Worms. — The 
Reformation. — Sale  of  Indulgences  by  Leo  X. — Tetzel. — Luther. — 
Progress  of  his  Opinions.  — Is  summoned  to  Rome. — His  Appearance 
before  the  Legate. — He  appeals  to  a  General  Council. — Luther 
questions  the  Papal  Authority. — Reformation  in  Switzerland. — Ex- 
communication of  Luther.— Reformation  in  Germany. — Causes  of 
the  Progress  of  the  Reformation.  — The  Corruption  in  the  Roman 
Church. — Power  and  Ill-Conduct  of  the  Clergy. —Venality  of  the 
Roman  Court. — Effects  of  the  Invention  of  Printing. — Erasmus. — 
The  Diet  at  Worms. — Edict  against  Luther. — He  is  seized  and  con- 
fined at  Wartburg. — His  Doctrines  condemned  by  the  University  of 
Paris,  and  controverted  by  Henty  VIII.  of  England. — Henry  VIII. 
favours  the  Emperor  Charles  against  Francis  I. — Leo  X.  makes  a 
Treaty  with  Charles. — Death  of  Chievres. — Hostilities  in  Navarre 
and  in  the  Low  Countries. — Siege  of  Mdzieres. — Congress  at  Calais. 
— League  against  France. — Hostilities  in  Italy. — Death  of  Leo  X. — 
Defeat  of  the  French. — Henry  VIII.  declares  War  against  France. — 
Charles  visits  England. — Conquest  of  Rhodes  by  Solyman. 

MANY  concurring  circumstances  not  only  called 
Charles's  thoughts  towards  the  affairs  of  Germany,  but 
rendered  his  presence  in  that  country  necessary.  The 
electors  grew  impatient  of  so  long  an  interregnum; 
his  hereditary  dominions  were  disturbed  by  intestine 
commotions ;  and  the  new  opinions  concerning  religion 
made  such  rapid  progress  as  required  the  most  serious 
consideration.  But,  above  all,  the  motions  of  the 
French  king  drew  his  attention,  and  convinced  him  that 
it  was  necessary  to  take  measures  for  his  own  defence 
with  no  less  speed  than  vigour. 

When  Charles  and  Francis  entered  the  lists  as  candi- 


360  REIGN  OP  THE  [BOOK  n 

dates  for  the  imperial  dignity,  they  conducted  their 
rivalship  with  many  professions  of  regard  for  each 
other,  and  with  repeated  declarations  that  they  would 
not  suffer  any  tincture  of  enmity  to  mingle  itself  with 
this  honourable  emulation.  "  We  both  court  the  same 
mistress,"  said  Francis,  with  his  usual  vivacity ;  "  each 
ought  to  urge  his  suit  with  all  the  address  of  which  he 
is  master :  the  most  fortunate  will  prevail,  and  the  other 
must  rest  contented."1  But  though  two  young  and 
high-spirited  princes,  and  each  of  them  animated  with 
the  hope  of  success,  might  be  capable  of  forming  such  a 
generous  resolution,  it  was  soon  found  that  they  pro- 
mised upon  a  moderation  too  refined  and  disinterested 
for  human  nature.  The  preference  given  to  Charles  in 
the  sight  of  all  Europe  mortified  Francis  extremely,  and 
inspired  him  with  all  the  passions  natural  to  disap- 
pointed ambition.  To  this  was  owing  the  personal 
jealousy  and  rivalship  which  ^subsisted  between  the  two 
monarchs  during  their  whole  reign ;  and  the  rancour  of 
these,  augmented  by  a  real  opposition  of  interest,  which 
gave  rise  to  many  unavoidable  causes  of  discord,  involved 
them  in  almost  perpetual  hostilities.  Charles  had  paid 
no  regard  to  the  principal  article  in  the  treaty  of  Noyon, 
by  refusing  oftener  than  once  to  do  justice  to  John 
d'Albret,  the  excluded  monarch  of  Navarre,  whom 
Francis  was  bound  in  honour  and  prompted  by  interest 
to  restore  to  his  throne.  The  French  king  had  preten- 
sions to  the  crown  of  Naples,  of  which  Ferdinand  had 
deprived  his  predecessor  by  a  most  unjustifiable  breach 
of  faith.  The  emperor  might  reclaim  the  duchy  of 
Milan  as  a  fief  of  the  empire,  which  Francis  had  seized, 
and  still  kept  in  possession,  without  having  received 
investiture  of  it  from  the  emperor.  Charles  considered 
the  duchy  of  Burgundy  as  the  patrimonial  domain  of  his 
ancestors,  wrested  from  them  by  the  unjust  policy  of 

1  Guic.,  lib.  xiii.  p.  169. 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEEOE  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  361 

Louis  XI.,  and  observed  with  the  greatest  jealousy  the 
strict  connections  which  Francis  had  formed  with  the 
duke  of  Gueldres,  the  hereditary  enemy  of  his  family. 

When  the  sources  of  discord  were  so  many  and 
various,  peace  could  be  of  no  long  continuance,  even 
between  princes  the  most  exempt  from  ambition  or 
emulation.  But  as  the  shock  between  two  such  mighty 
antagonists  could  not  fail  of  being  extremely  violent, 
they  both  discovered  no  small  solicitude  about  its  con- 
sequences, and  took  time  not  only  to  collect  and  to 
ponder  their  own  strength  and  to  compare  it  with  that 
of  their  adversary,  but  to  secure  the  friendship  or  assist- 
ance of  the  other  European  powers. 

The  pope  had  equal  reason  to  dread  the  two  rivals, 
and  saw  that  he  who  prevailed  would  become  absolute 
master  in  Italy.  If  it  had  been  in  his  power  to  engage 
them  in  hostilities  without  rendering  Lombardy  the 
theatre  of  war,  nothing  would  have  been  more  agree- 
able to  him  than  to  see  them  waste  each  other's  strength 
in  endless  quarrels.  But  this  was  impossible.  Leo 
foresaw  that  on  the  first  rupture  between  the  two 
monarchs  the  armies  of  France  and  Spain  would  take 
the  field  in  the  Milanese ;  and  while  the  scene  of  their 
operations  was  so  near,  and  the  subject  for  which  they 
contended  so  interesting  to  him,  he  could  not  long 
remain  neuter.  He  was  obliged,  therefore,  to  adapt  his 
plan  of  conduct  to  his  political  situation.  He  courted 
and  soothed  the  emperor  and  king  of  France  with  equal 
industry  and  address.  Though  warmly  solicited  by  each 
of  them  to  espouse  his  cause,  he  assumed  all  the  appear- 
ances of  entire  impartiality,  and  attempted  to  conceal 
his  real  sentiments  under  that  profound  dissimulation 
which  seems  to  have  been  affected  by  most  of  the  Italian 
politicians  in  that  age. 

The  views  and  interests  of  the  Venetians  were  not 
different  from  those  of  the  pope ;  nor  were  they  less 


362  REIGN  Ol1  THE  [BOOK  n. 

solicitous  to  prevent  Italy  from  becoming  the  seat  of 
war,  and  their  own  republic  from  being  involved  in  the 
quarrel.  But  through  all  Leo's  artifices,  and  notwith- 
standing his  high  pretensions  to  a  perfect  neutrality,  it 
was  visible  that  he  leaned  towards  the  emperor,  from 
whom  he  had  both  more  to  fear  and  more  to  hope  than 
from  Francis ;  and  it  was  equally  manifest  that  if  it 
became  necessary  to  take  a  side  the  Venetians  would, 
from  motives  of  the  same  nature,  declare  for  the  king 
of  France.  No  considerable  assistance,  however,  was 
to  be  expected  from  the  Italian  states,  who  were  jealous 
to  an  extreme  degree  of  the  Transalpine  powers,  and 
careful  to  preserve  the  balance  even  between  them, 
unless  when  they  were  seduced  to  violate  this  favourite 
maxim  of  their  policy  by  the  certain  prospect  of  some 
great  advantage  to  themselves. 

But  the  chief  attention  both  of  Charles  and  of 
Francis  was  employed  in  order  to  gain  the  king  of 
England,  from  whom  each  of  them  expected  assistance 
more  effectual  and  afforded  with  less  political  caution. 
Henry  VIII.  had  ascended  the  throne  of  that  kingdom 
in  the  year  1509,  with  such  circumstances  of  advantage 
as  promised  a  reign  of  distinguished  felicity  and  splen- 
dour. The  union  in  his  person  of  the  two  contending 
titles  of  York  and  Lancaster,  the  alacrity  and  emulation 
with  which  both  factions  obeyed  his  commands,  not  only 
enabled  him  to  exert  a  degree  of  vigour  and  authority 
in  his  domestic  government  which  none  of  his  prede- 
cessors could  have  safely  assumed,  but  permitted  him  to 
take  a  share  in  the  affairs  of  the  Continent,  from  which 
the  attention  of  the  English  had  long  been  diverted  by 
their  unhappy  intestine  divisions.  The  great  sums  of 
money  which  his  father  had  amassed  rendered  him  the 
most  wealthy  prince  in  Europe.  The  peace  which  had 
subsisted  under  the  cautious  administration  of  that 
monarch  had  been  of  sufficient  length  to  recruit  the 


BOOK  n.]  EMPEEOE  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  363 

population  of  the  kingdom  after  the  desolation  of  the 
civil  wars,  but  not  so  long  as  to  enervate  its  spirit ;  and 
the  English,*  ashamed  of  having  rendered  their  own 
country  so  long  a  scene  of  discord  and  bloodshed,  were 
eager  to  display  their  valour  in  some  foreign  war,  and 
to  revive  the  memory  of  the  victories  gained  on  the 
Continent  by  their  ancestors.  Henry's  own  temper 
perfectly  suited  the  state  of  his  kingdom  and  the  dispo- 
sition of  his  subjects.  Ambitious,  active,  enterprising, 
and  accomplished  in  all  the  martial  exercises  which  in 
that  age  formed  a  chief  part  in  the  education  of  persons 
of  noble  birth  and  inspired  them  with  an  early  love  of 
war,  he  longed  to  engage  in  action,  and  to  signalize  the 
beginning  of  his  reign  by  some  remarkable  exploit.  An 
opportunity  soon  presented  itself ;  and  the  victory  at 
Guinegate,  together  with  the  successful  sieges  of  Terou- 
enne  and  Tournay,  though  of  little  utility  to  England, 
reflected  great  lustre  on  its  monarch,  and  confirmed  the 
idea  which  foreign  princes  entertained  of  his  power  and 
consequence.  So  many  concurring  causes,  added  to  the 
happy  situation  of  his  own  dominions,  which  secured 
them  from  foreign  invasion,  and  to  the  fortunate  cir- 
cumstance of  his  being  in  possession  of  Calais,  which 
served  not  only  as  a  key  to  France,  but  opened  an  easy 
passage  into  the  Netherlands,  rendered  the  king  of 
England  the  natural  guardian  of  the  liberties  of  Europe, 
and  the  arbiter  between  the  emperor  and  French  monarch. 
Henry  himself  was  sensible  of  this  singular  advantage, 
and  convinced  that,  in  order  to  preserve  the  balance 
even,  it  was  his  office  to  prevent  either  of  the  rivals  from 
acquiring  such  superiority  of  power  as  might  be  fatal  to 
the  other,  or  formidable  to  the  rest  of  Christendom. 
But  he  was  destitute  of  the  penetration,  and  still  more 
of  the  temper,  which  such  a  delicate  function  required. 
Influenced  by  caprice,  by  vanity,  by  resentment,  by 
affection,  he  was  incapable  of  forming  any  regular  and 


364  HEIGN  OF  THE  L*°<>K  tt 

extensive  system  of  policy  or  of  adhering  to  it  with 
steadiness.  His  measures  seldom  resulted  from  attention 
to  the  general  welfare  or  from  a  deliberate  regard  to  his 
own  interest,  but  were  dictated  by  passions  which  ren- 
dered him  blind  to  both,  and  prevented  his  gaining  that 
ascendant  in  the  affairs  of  Europe,  or  from  reaping  such 
advantages  to  himself,  as  a  prince  of  greater  art,  though 
with  inferior  talents,  might  have  easily  secured. 

All  the  impolitic  steps  in  Henry's  administration 
must  not,  however,  be  imputed  to  defects  in  his  own 
character ;  many  of  them  were  owing  to  the  violent 
passions  and  insatiable  ambition  of  his  prime  minister 
and  favourite,  Cardinal  Wolsey.  This  man,  from  one 
of  the  lowest  ranks  in  life,  had  risen  to  a  height  of 
power  and  dignity  to  which  no  English  subject  ever 
arrived,  and  governed  the  haughty,  presumptuous,  and 
untractable  spirit  of  Henry  with  absolute  authority. 
Great  talents,  and  of  very  different  kinds,  fitted  him 
for  the  two  opposite  stations  of  minister  and  of  favourite. 
His  profound  judgment,  his  unwearied  industry,  his 
thorough  acquaintance  with  the  state  of  the  kingdom, 
his  extensive  knowledge  of  the  views  and  interest  of 
foreign  courts,  qualified  him  for  that  uncontrolled 
direction  of  affairs  with  which  he  was  intrusted.  The 
elegance  of  his  manners,  the  gaiety  of  his  conversation, 
his  insinuating  address,  his  love  of  magnificence,  and 
his  proficiency  in  those  parts  of  literature  of  which 
Henry  was  fond,  gained  him  the  affection  and  confi- 
dence of  the  young  monarch.  Wolsey  was  far  from 
employing  this  vast  and  almost  royal  power  to  promote 
cither  the  true  interest  of  the  nation  or  the  real  grandeur 
of  his  master.  Rapacious  at  the  same  time,  and  profuse, 
he  was  insatiable  in  desiring  wealth.  Of  boundless 
ambition,  he  aspired  after  new  honours  with  an  eager- 
ness unabated  by  his  former  success ;  and  being  rendered 
presumptuous  by  his  uncommon  elevation,  as  well  as  by 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  365 

the  ascendant  which  he  had  gained  over  a  prince  who 
scarcely  brooked  advice  from  any  other  person,  he  dis- 
covered in  his  whole  demeanour  the  most  overbearing 
haughtiness  and  pride.  To  these  passions  he  himself 
sacrificed  every  consideration ;  and  whoever  endeavoured 
to  obtain  his  favour,  or  that  of  his  master,  found  it 
necessary  to  soothe  and  to  gratify  them. 

As  all  the  states  of  Europe  sought  Henry's  friendship 
at  that  time,  all  courted  his  minister  with  incredible 
attention  and  obsequiousness,  and  strove,  by  presents, 
by  promises,  or  by  flattery,  to  work  upon  his  avarice, 
his  ambition,  or  his  pride.2  Francis  had,  in  the  year 
1518,  employed  Bonnivet,  admiral  of  France,  one  of 
his  most  accomplished  and  artful  courtiers,  to  gain  this 
haughty  prelate.  He  himself  bestowed  on  him  every 
mark  of  respect  and  confidence.  He  consulted  him 
with  regard  to  his  most  important  affairs,  and  received 
his  responses  with  implicit  deference.  By  these  arts, 
together  with  the  grant  of  a  large  pension,  Francis 
attached  the  cardinal  to  his  interest,  who  persuaded  his 
master  to  surrender  Tournay  to  France,  to  conclude  a 
treaty  of  marriage  between  his  daughter,  the  princess 
Mary,  and  the  dauphin,  and  to  consent  to  a  personal 
interview  with  the  French  king.3  From  that  time  the 
most  familiar  intercourse  subsisted  between  the  two 
courts  ;  Francis,  sensible  of  «the  great  value  of  Wolsey's 
friendship,  laboured  to  secure  the  continuance  of  it  by 
every  possible  expression  of  regard,  bestowing  on  him, 
in  all  his  letters,  the  honourable  appellations  of  father, 
tutor,  and  governor. 

Charles  observed  the  progress  of  this  ur^n  with  the 
utmost  jealousy  and  concern.  His  near  atfini'v  to  the 
king  of  England  gave  him  some  title  to  nifi  friendship; 
and  soon  after  his  accession  to  the  throne  ol  ruddle  he 

2  Fiddes's  Life  of  Wolsey,   166.  3  Herbert's    History    of    Henry 

— Rymer's  Fredera,  xiii.  718.  VIII.,  30— Rymer,  xiii.  624. 


366  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

had  attempted  to  ingratiate  himself  with  Wolsey,  by 
settling  on  him  a  pension  of  three  thousand  livres.  His 
chief  solicitude  at  present  was  to  prevent  the  intended 
interview  with  Francis,  the  effects  of  which  upon  two 
young  princes,  whose  hearts  were  no  less  susceptible  of 
friendship  than  their  manners  were  capable  of  inspiring 
it,  he  extremely  dreaded.  But  after  many  delays,  occa- 
sioned by  difficulties  with  respect  to  the  ceremonial,  and 
by  the  anxious  precautions  of  both  courts  for  the  safety 
of  their  respective  sovereigns,  the  time  and  place  of 
meeting  were  at  last  fixed.  Messengers  had  been  sent 
to  different  courts,  inviting  all  comers  who  were  gentle- 
men to  enter  the  lists  at  tilt  and  tournament  against  the 
two  monarchs  and  their  knights.  Both  Francis  and 
Henry  loved  the  splendour  of  these  spectacles  too  well, 
and  were  too  much  delighted  with  the  graceful  figure 
which  they  made  on  such  occasions,  to  forego  the  pleasure 
or  glory  which  they  expected  from  such  a  singular  and 
brilliant  assembly.  Nor  was  the  cardinal  less  fond  of 
displaying  his  own  magnificence  in  the  presence  of  two 
courts,  and  of  discovering  to  the  two  nations  the  extent 
of  his  influence  over  both  their  monarchs.  Charles, 
finding  it  impossible  to  prevent  the  interview,  endea- 
voured to  disappoint  its  effects,  and  to  preoccupy  the 
favour  of  the  English  monarch  and  his  minister  by  an 
act  of  complaisance  still  more  flattering  and  more  un- 
common. Having  sailed  from  Corunna,  as  has  already 
been  related,  he  steered  his  course  directly  towards 
England,  and,  relying  wholly  on  Henry's  generosity  for 
his  own  safety,  landed  at  Dover.  This  unexpected  visit 
surprised  the  nation.  Wolsey,  however,  was  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  emperor's  intention.  A  negotiation, 
unknown  to  the  historians  of  that  age,  had  been  carried 
on  between  him  and  the  court  of  Spain ;  this  visit  had 
been  concerted ;  and  Charles  granted  the  cardinal,  whom 
he  calls  his  most  dear  friend^  an  additional  pension  of 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  367 

seven  thousand  ducats.4  Henry,  who  was  then  at  Can- 
terbury, in  his  way  to  France,  immediately  despatched 
Wolsey  to  Dover  in  order  to  welcome  the  emperor,  and, 
being  highly  pleased  with  an  event  so  soothing  to  his 
vanity,  hastened  to  receive  with  suitable  respect  a  guest 
who  had  placed  in  him  such  unbounded  confidence. 
Charles,  to  whom  time  was  precious,  stayed  only  four 
days  in  England ;  but  during  that  short  space  he  had  the 
address  not  only  to  give  Henry  favourable  impressions 
of  his  character  and  intentions,  but  to  detach  Wolsey 
entirely  from  the  interest  of  the  French  king.  All  the 
grandeur,  the  wealth,  and  the  power  which  the  cardinal 
possessed  did  not  satisfy  his  ambitious  mind  while  there 
was  one  step  higher  to  which  an  ecclesiastic  could  ascend. 
The  papal  dignity  had  for  some  time  been  the  object  of 
his  wishes ;  and  Francis,  as  the  most  effectual  method 
of  securing  his  friendship,  had  promised  to  favour  his 
pretensions,  on  the  first  vacancy,  with  all  his  interest. 
But  as  the  emperor's  influence  in  the  college  of  cardinals 
was  greatly  superior  to  that  of  the  French  king,  Wolsey 
grasped  eagerly  at  the  offer  which  that  artful  prince 
had  made  him,  of  exerting  it  vigorously  in  his  behalf ; 
and,  allured  by  this  prospect,  which  under  the  pontifi- 
cate of  Leo,  still  in  the  prime  of  his  life,  was  a  very 
distant  one,  he  entered  with  warmth  into  all  the  em- 
peror's schemes.  No  treaty,  however,  was  concluded  at 
that  time  between  the  two  monarchs ;  but  Henry,  in 
return  for  the  honour  which  Charles  had  done  him,  pro- 
mised to  visit  him  in  some  place  of  the  Low  Countries 
immediately  after  taking  leave  of  the  French  king. 

His  interview  with  that  prince  was  in  an  open  plain 
between  Ghiisnes  and  Ardres,  where  the  two  kings  and 
their  attendants  displayed  their  magnificence  with  such 
emulation  and  profuse  expense  as  procured  it  the  name 
of  the  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold.  Feats  of  chivalry, 

4  Rymer,  xiii.  714. 


308  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

parties  of  gallantry,  together  with  such  exercises  and 
pastimes  as  were  in  that  age  reckoned  manly  or  elegant, 
rather  than  serious  business,  occupied  both  courts  during 
eighteen  days  that  they  continued  together.5  Whatever 
impression  the  engaging  manners  of  Francis,  or  the 
liberal  and  unsuspicious  confidence  with  which  he  treated 
Henry,  made  on  the  mind  of  that  monarch,  was  soon 
effaced  by  "Wolsey's  artifices,  or  by  an  interview  he  had 
with  the  emperor  at  Gravelines,  which  was  conducted 
with  less  pomp  than  that  near  Guisnes,  but  with  greater 
attention  to  what  might  be  of  political  utility. 

This  assiduity  with  which  the  two  greatest  monarchs 
in  Europe  paid  court  to  Henry  appeared  to  him  a 
plain  acknowledgment  that  he  held  the  balance  in  his 
hands,  and  convinced  him  of  the  justness  of  the  motto 
he  had  chosen,  "  That  whoever  he  favoured  would  pre- 
vail." In  this  opinion  he  was  confirmed  by  an  offer 
which  Charles  made,  of  submitting  any  difference  that 
might  arise  between  him  and  Francis  to  his  sole  arbi- 
tration. Nothing  could  have  the  appearance  of  greater 
candour  and  moderation  than  the  choice  of  a  judge  who 
was  reckoned  the  common  friend  of  both.  But,  as  the 
emperor  had  now  attached  Wolsey  entirely  to  his  in- 

5  The  French  and  English  his-  of  Bretagne,  the  English  gained 
torians  describe  the  pomp  of  this  the  prize.  After  this,  the  kings  of 
interview,  and  the  various  spec-  France  and  England  retired  to  a 
tacles,  with  great  minuteness.  One  tent,  where  they  drank  together, 
circumstance  mentioned  by  the  and  the  king  of  England,  seizing 
Mare'schal  de  Fleuranges,  who  was  the  king  of  France  by  the  collar, 
present,  and  which  must  appear  sin-  said,  '  My  brother,  I  must  wrestle 
gular  in  the  present  age,  is  com-  with  you,'  and  endeavoured  once 
monly  omitted.  "  After  the  tour-  or  twice  to  trip  up  his  heels  ;  but  the 
nament,"  says  he,  "  the  French  and  king  of  France,  who  is  a  dexterous 
English  wrestlers  made  their  ap-  wrestler,  twisted  him  round,  and 
pearance,  and  wrestled  in  presence  threw  him  on  the  earth  with  pro- 
of the  kings  and  the  ladies  ;  and  as  digious  violence.  The  king  of  Eng- 
there  were  many  stout  wrestlers  land  wanted  to  renew  the  combat, 
there,  it  afforded  excellent  pastime  ;  but  was  prevented."  Me'moires  de 
but  as  the  king  of  France  had  Fleuranges,  12mo,  Paris,  1753,  p. 
neglected  to  bring  any  wrestlers  out  329. 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFrH.  369 

terest,  no  proposal  could  be  more  insidious,  nor,  as 
appeared  by  the  sequel,  more  fatal  to  the  French 
king.6 

Charles,  notwithstanding  his  partial  fondness  for  the 
Netherlands,  the  place  of  his  nativity,  made  no  long 
stay  there,  and,  after  receiving  the  homage  and  con- 
gratulations of  his  countrymen,  hastened  to  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,  the  place  appointed  by  the  golden  bull  for 
the  coronation  of  the  emperor.  There,  in  presence 
of  an  assembly  more  numerous  and  splendid  than  had 
appeared  on  any  former  occasion,  the  crown  of  Charle- 
magne was  placed  on  his  head,  with  all  the  pompous 
solemnity  which  the  Germans  affect  in  their  public 
ceremonies,  and  which  they  deem  essential  to  the 
dignity  of  their  empire.7 

Almost  at  the  same  time  Solyman  the  Magnificent, 
one  of  the  most  accomplished,  enterprising,  and  vic- 
torious of  the  Turkish  sultans,  a  constant  and  formid- 
able rival  to  the  emperor,  ascended  the  Ottoman 
throne.  It  was  the  peculiar  glory  of  that  period  to 
produce  the  most  illustrious  monarchs  who  have  at  any 
one  time  appeared  in  Europe.  Leo,  Charles,  Francis, 
Henry,  and  Solyman  were  each  of  them  possessed  of 
talents  that  might  have  rendered  any  age  wherein  they 
happened  to  nourish  conspicuous.  But  such  a  constel- 
lation of  great  princes  shed  uncommon  lustre  on  the 
sixteenth  century.  In  every  contest  great  power,  as 
well  as  great  abilities,  were  set  in  opposition ;  the 
efforts  of  valour  and  conduct  on  one  side,  counter- 
balanced by  an  equal  exertion  of  the  same  qualities  on 
the  other,  not  only  occasioned  such  a  variety  of  events 
as  renders  the  history  of  that  period  interesting,  but 
served  to  check  the  exorbitant  progress  of  any  of  those 
princes,  and  to  prevent  their  attaining  such  pre-eminence 

6  Herbert,  37.  ronat.  Car.  V.,  ap.  Goldast.  Polit 

7  Hartman,    Mauri    Relatio    To-      Imperial.  Franc.,  1614,  fol.,  p.  264 

VOL.   JL  B  B 


370  BEIGN  OP  THfi  tBOOK  a- 

in  power  as  would  have  been  fatal  to  the  liberty  and 
happiness  of  mankind. 

The  first  act  of  the  emperor's  administration  was  to 
appoint  a  diet  of  the  empire  to  be  held  at  Worms  on 
the  6th  of  January,  1521.  In  his  circular  letters  to 
the  different  princes,  he  informed  them  that  he  had 
called  this  assembly  in  order  to  concert  with  them  the 
most  proper  measures  for  checking  the  progress  of 
those  new  and  dangerous  opinions  which  threatened 
to  disturb  the  peace  of  Germany  and  to  overturn  the 
religion  of  their  ancestors. 

Charles  had  in  view  the  opinions  which  had  been 
propagated  by  Luther  and  his  disciples  since  the  year 
1517.  As  these  led  to  that  happy  reformation  in  re- 
ligion which  rescued  one  part  of  Europe  from  the  papal 
yoke,  mitigated  its  rigour  in  the  other,  and  produced  a 
revolution  in  the  sentiments  of  mankind,  the  greatest 
as  well  as  the  most  beneficial  that  has  happened  since 
the  publication  of  Christianity,  not  only  the  events 
which  at  first  gave  birth  to  such  opinions,  but  the  causes 
which  rendered  their  progress  so  rapid  and  successful, 
deserve  to  be  considered  with  minute  attention. 

To  overturn  a  system  of  religious  belief  founded 
on  ancient  and  deep-rooted  prejudices,  supported  by 
power,  and  defended  with  no  less  art  than  industry, 
to  establish  in  its  room  doctrines  of  the  most  contrary 
genius  and  tendency,  and  to  accomplish  all  this,  not 
by  external  violence  or  the  force  of  arms,  are  opera- 
tions which  historians  the  least  prone  to  credulity  and 
superstition  ascribe  to  that  Divine  Providence  which 
with  infinite  ease  can  bring  about  events  which  to 
human  sagacity  appear  impossible.  The  interposition 
of  heaven  in  favour  of  the  Christian  religion  at  its  first 
publication  was  manifested  by  miracles  and  prophecies 
wrought  and  uttered  in  confirmation  of  it.  Though 
none  of  the  Eeformers  possessed,  or  pretended  to  pos- 


BOOK  n.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  371 

sess,  these  supernatural  gifts,  yet  that  wonderful  pre- 
paration of  circumstances  which  disposed  the  minds  of 
men  for  receiving  their  doctrines — that  singular  com- 
bination of  causes  which  secured  their  success,  and 
enabled  men  destitute  of  power  and  of  policy  to  triumph 
over  those  who  employed  against  them  extraordinary 
efforts  of  both — may  be  considered  as  no  slight  proof 
that  the  same  hand  which  planted  the  Christian  religion 
protected  the  Eeformed  faith,  and  reared  it  from  be- 
ginnings extremely  feeble  to  an  amazing  degree  of 
vigour  and  maturity. 

Tt  was  from  causes  seemingly  fortuitous,  and  from  a 
source  very  inconsiderable,  that  all  the  mighty  effects 
of  the  Reformation  flowed.  Leo  X.,  when  raised  to 
the  papal  throne,  found  the  revenues  of  the  Church 
exhausted  by  the  vast  projects  of  his  two  ambitious 
predecessors,  Alexander  VI.  and  Julius  II.  His  own 
temper,  naturally  liberal  and  enterprising,  rendered 
him  incapable  of  that  severe  and  patient  economy 
which  the  situation  of  his  finances  required.  On  the 
contrary,  his  schemes  for  aggrandizing  the  family  of 
Medici,  his  love  of  splendour,  his  taste  for  pleasure,  and 
his  magnificence  in  rewarding  nien  of  genius,  involved 
him  daily  in  new  expenses,  in  order  to  provide  a  fund 
for  which,  he  tried  every  device  that  the  fertile  inven- 
tion of  priests  had  fallen  upon  to  drain  the  credulous 
multitude  of  their  wealth.  Among  others,  he  had  re- 
course to  a  sale  of  indulgences.  According  to  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Eomish  Church,  all  the  good  works  of  the 
saints  over  and  above  those  which  were  necessary 
towards  their  own  justification  are  deposited,  together 
with  the  infinite  merits  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  one  inex- 
haustible treasury.  The  keys  of  this  were  committed 
to  St.  Peter,  and  to  his  successors  the  popes,  who  may 
open  it  at  pleasure,  and,  by  transferring  a  portion  of 
this  superabundant  merit  to  any  particular  person  for  a 

B  B  2 


372  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

sum  of  money,  may  convey  to  him  either  the  pardon 
of  his  own  sins,  or  a  release  for  any  one  in  whose  hap- 
piness he  is  interested  from  the  pains  of  purgatory. 
Such  indulgences  were  first  invented  in  the  eleventh 
century  by  Urban  II.  as  a  recompense  for  those  who 
went  in  person  upon  the  meritorious  enterprise  of  con- 
quering the  Holy  Land.  They  were  afterwards  granted 
to  those  who  hired  a  soldier  for  that  purpose,  and  in 
process  of  time  were  bestowed  on  such  as  gave  money 
for  accomplishing  any  pious  work  enjoined  by  the 
pope.8  Julius  II.  had  bestowed  indulgences  on  all  who 
contributed  towards  building  the  church  of  St.  Peter 
at  Eome ;  and,  as  Leo  was  carrying  on  that  magnifi- 
cent and  expensive  fabric,  his  grant  was  founded  on  the 
same  pretence.9 

The  right  of  promulgating  these  indulgences  in  Ger- 
many, together  with  a  share  in  the  profits  arising  from 
the  sale  of  them,  was  granted  to  Albert,  elector  of 
Mentz  and  archbishop  of  Magdeburg,  who,  as  his  chief 
agent  for  retailing  them  in  Saxony,  employed  Tetzel,  a 
Dominican  friar,  of  licentious  morals,  but  of  an  active 
spirit,  and  remarkable  for  his  noisy  and  popular  elo- 
quence. He,  assisted  by  the  monks  of  his  order,  exe- 
cuted the  commission  with  great  zeal  and  success,  but 
with  little  discretion  or  decency ;  and  though,  by  mag- 
nifying excessively  the  benefit  of  their  indulgences,10 

8  History  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  solution  used  by  Tetzel :  "  May  our 

by  F.  Paul,  p.  4.  Lord  Jesus  Christ  have  mercy  upon 

u  Pallav.,  Hist.  Cone.  Trident.,  thee,  and  absolve  thee  by  the  merits 

p.  4.  of  his  most  holy  passion.  And  I, 

10  As  the  form  of  these  indul-  by  his  authority,  that  of  his  blessed 
gences,  and  the  benefits  which  they  Apostles  Peter  and  Paul,  and  of  the 
were  supposed  to  convey,  are  un-  most  holy  pope,  granted  and  coin- 
known  in  Protestant  countries,  and  mitted  to  me  in  these  parts,  do 
little  understood,  at  present,  in  absolve  thee,  first  from  all  eccle- 
several  places  where  the  Roman  siastical  censures,  in  whatever  man- 
Catholic  religion  is  established,  I  ner  they  have  been  incurred,  and 
have,  for  the  information  of  my  then  from  all  thy  sins,  transgres- 
readers,  translated  the  form  of  ab-  aions,  and  excesses,  how  enonnoui 


BOOK   II.] 


EMPEEOR   CHARLES  THE   FIFTH. 


373 


and  by  disposing  of  them  at  a  very  low  price,  they 
carried  on  for  some  time  an  extensive  and  lucrative 
traffic  among  the  credulous  and  the  ignorant,  the  ex- 
travagance of  their  assertions,  as  well  as  the  irregulari- 
ties in  their  conduct,  came  at  last  to  give  general 
offence.  The  princes  and  nobles  were  irritated  at  see- 
ing their  vassals  drained  of  so  much  wealth  in  order 
to  replenish  the  treasury  of  a  profuse  pontiff.  Men  of 
piety  regretted  the  delusion  of  the  people,  who,  being 
taught  to  rely  for  the  pardon  of  their  sins  on  the 


soever  they  may  be,  even  from  such 
as  are  reserved  for  the  cognizance 
of  the  holy  see  ;  and  as  far  as  the 
keys  of  the  Holy  Church  extend,  I 
remit  to  you  all  punishment  which 
you  deserve  in  purgatory  on  their 
account,  and  I  restore  you  to  the 
holy  sacraments  of  the  Church,  to 
the  unity  of  the  faithful,  and  to  that 
innocence  and  purity  which  you 
possessed  at  baptism ;  so  that,  when 
you  die,  the  gates  of  punishment 
shall  be  shut,  and  the  gates  of  the 
paradise  of  delight  shall  be  opened  ; 
and  if  you  shall  not  die  at  present, 
this  grace  shall  remain  in  full  force 
when  you  are  at  the  point  of  death. 
In  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of 
the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 
Seckend.,  Comment.,  lib.  i.,  p.  14. 
The  terms  in  which  Tetzel  and 
his  associates  described  the  benefits 
of  indulgences,  and  the  necessity  of 
purchasing  them,  are  so  extrava- 
gant that  they  appear  to  be  almost 
incredible.  If  any  man  (said  they) 
purchase  letters  of  indulgence,  his 
soul  may  rest  secure  with  respect 
to  its  salvation.  The  souls  con- 
fined in  purgatory,  for  whose  re- 
demption indulgences  are  purchased, 
as  soon  as  the  money  tinkles  in  the 
chest,  instantly  escape  from  that 
place  of  torment  and  ascend  into 


heaven.  That  the  efficacy  of  in- 
dulgences was  so  great  that  the 
most  heinous  sins,  even  if  one 
should  violate  (which  was  impossi- 
ble) the  mother  of  God,  would  be 
remitted  and  expiated  by  them,  and 
the  person  be  freed  both  from 
punishment  and  guilt.  That  this 
was  the  unspeakable  gift  of  God,  in 
order  to  reconcile  men  to  himself. 
That  the  cross  erected  by  the  preach- 
ers of  indulgences  was  as  efficacious 
as  the  cross  of  Christ  itself.  Lo  ! 
the  heavens  are  open  ;  if  you  enter 
not  now,  when  will  you  enter?  For 
twelve  pence  you  may  redeem  the 
soul  of  your  father  out  of  purgatory ; 
and  are  you  so  ungrateful  that  you 
will  not  rescue  your  parent  from 
torment  ?  If  you  had  but  one  coat, 
you  ought  to  strip  yourself  instantly, 
and  sell  it,  in  order  to  purchase 
such  benefits,  etc.  These,  and  many 
such  extravagant  expressions,  are 
selected  out  of  Luther's  works  by 
Chemnitius  in  his  Examen  Concilii 
Tridentini,  apud  Henn.  von  der 
Hardt,  Hist.  Liter.  Reform.,  pars 
iv.  p.  6.  The  same  author  has 
published  several  of  Tetzel's  dis- 
courses, which  prove  that  these  ex- 
pressions were  neither  singular  not 
exaggerated.  Ibid.,  p.  14. 


374  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

indulgences  which  they  purchased,  did  not  think  it 
incumbent  on  them  either  to  study  the  doctrines  taught 
by  genuine  Christianity  or  to  practise  the  duties  which 
it  enjoins.  Even  the  most  unthinking  were  shocked  at 
the  scandalous  behaviour  of  Tetzel  and  his  associates, 
who  often  squandered,  in  drunkenness,  gaming,  and 
low  debauchery,  those  sums  which  were  piously  be- 
stowed in  hopes  of  obtaining  eternal  happiness ;  and 
all  began  to  wish  that  some  check  were  given  to  this 
commerce,  no  less  detrimental  to  society  than  destructive 
to  religion. 

Such  was  the  favourable  juncture,  and  so  disposed 
were  the  minds  of  his  countrymen  to  listen  to  his 
discourses,  when  Martin  Luther  first  began  to  call  in 
question  the  efficacy  of  indulgences,  and  to  declaim 
against  the  vicious  lives  and  false  doctrines  of  the  per- 
sons employed  in  promulgating  them.  Luther  was  a 
native  of  Eisleben,  in  Saxony,  and,  though  born  of 
poor  parents,  had  received  a  learned  education,  during 
the  progress  of  which  he  gave  many  indications  of 
uncommon  vigour  and  acuteness  of  genius.  His  mind 
was  naturally  susceptible  of  serious  sentiments,  and 
tinctured  with  somewhat  of  that  religious  melancholy 
which  delights  in  the  solitude  and  devotion  of  a 
monastic  life.  The  death  of  a  companion,  killed  by 
lightning  at  his  side  in  a  violent  thunder-storm,  made 
such  an  impression  on  his  mind  as  oo-operated  with  his 
natural  temper  in  inducing  him  to  retire  into  a  con- 
vent of  Augustinian  friars,  where,  without  suffering  the 
entreaties  of  his  parents  to  divert  him  from  what  he 
thought  his  duty  to  God,  he  assumed  the  habit  of  that 
order.  He  soon  acquired  great  reputation,  not  only 
for  piety,  but  for  his  love  of  knowledge  and  his  un- 
wearied application  to  study.  He  had  been  taught  the 
scholastic  philosophy  and  theology,  which  were  then  in 
rogue,  by  very  able  masters,  and  wanted  not  penetra- 


BOOK  H.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  375 

tion  to  comprehend  all  the  niceties  and  distinctions 
with  which  they  abound;  but  his  understanding,  na- 
turally sound,  and  superior  to  everything  frivolous,  soon 
became  disgusted  with  those  subtle  and  uninstructive 
sciences,  and  sought  for  some  more  solid  foundation  of 
knowledge  and  of  piety  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Having 
found  a  copy  of  the  Bible,  which  lay  neglected  in  the 
library  of  his  monastery,  he  abandoned  all  other  pur- 
suits, and  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  it  with  such 
eagerness  and  assiduity  as  astonished  the  monks,  who 
were  little  accustomed  to  derive  their  theological  no- 
tions from  that  source.  The  great  progress  which  he 
made  in  this  uncommon  course  of  study  augmented  so 
much  the  fame  both  of  his  sanctity  and  of  his  learn- 
ing, that  Frederic,  elector  of  Saxony,  having  founded 
a  university  at  Wittemberg  on  the  Elbe,  the  place  of 
his  residence,  Luther  was  chosen  first  to  teach  philo- 
sophy, and  afterwards  theology,  there,  and  discharged 
both  offices  in  such  a  manner  that  he  was  deemed  the 
chief  ornament  of  that  society. 

While  Luther  was  at  the  height  of  his  reputation  and 
authority,  Tetzel  began  to  publish  indulgences  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Wittemberg,  and  to  ascribe  to  them 
the  same  imaginary  virtues  which  had  in  other  places 
imposed  on  the  credulity  of  the  people.  As  Saxony 
was  not  more  enlightened  than  the  other  provinces  of 
Germany,  Tetzel  met  with  prodigious  success  there. 
It  was  with  the  utmost  concern  that  Luther  beheld  the 
artifices  of  those  who  sold,  and  the  simplicity  of  those 
who  bought,  indulgences.  The  opinions  of  Thomas 
Aquinas  and  the  other  schoolmen,  on  which  the  doc- 
trine of  indulgences  was  founded,  had  already  lost 
much  of  their  authority  with  him ;  and  the  Scriptures, 
which  he  began  to  consider  as  the  great  standard  of 
theological  truth,  afforded  no  countenance  to  a  practice 
squally  subversive  of  faith  and  of  morals.  His  warm 


376  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

and  impetuous  temper  did  not  suffer  him  long  to  con- 
ceal such  important  discoveries,  or  to  continue  a  silent 
spectator  of  the  delusion  of  his  countrymen.  From 
the  pulpit  in  the  great  church  of  Wittemberg  he  in- 
veighed hitterly  against  the  irregularities  and  vices  of 
the  monks  who  published  indulgences ;  he  ventured  to 
examine  the  doctrines  which  they  taught,  and  pointed 
out  to  the  people  the  danger  of  relying  for  salvation 
upon  any  other  means  than  those  appointed  by  God  in 
his  word.  The  boldness  and  novelty  of  these  opinions 
drew  great  attention,  and,  being  recommended  by  the 
authority  of  Luther's  personal  character  and  delivered 
with  a  popular  and  persuasive  eloquence,  they  made  a 
deep  impression  on  his  hearers.  Encouraged  by  the 
favourable  reception  of  his  doctrines  among  the  people, 
he  wrote  to  Albert,  elector  of  Mentz  and  archbishop  of 
Magdeburg,  to  whose  jurisdiction  that  part  of  Saxony 
was  subject,  and  remonstrated  warmly  against  the  false 
opinions,  as  well  as  wicked  lives,  of  the  preachers  of 
indulgences;  but  he  found  that  prelate  too  deeply  in- 
terested in  their  success  to  correct  their  abuses.  His 
next  attempt  was  to  gain  the  suffrage  of  men  of  learn- 
ing. For  this  purpose  he  published  ninety -five  theses, 
containing  his  sentiments  with  regard  to  indulgences. 
These  he  proposed,  not  as  points  fully  established  or 
of  undoubted  certainty,  but  as  subjects  of  inquiry  and 
disputation ;  he  appointed  a  day  on  which  the  learned 
were  invited  to  impugn  them,  either  in  person  or  by 
writing ;  to  the  whole  he  subjoined  solemn  protesta- 
tions of  his  high  respect  for  the  apostolic  see,  and  of 
his  implicit  submission  to  its  authority.  No  opponent 
appeared  at  the  time  prefixed ;  the  theses  spread  over 
Germany  with  astonishing  rapidity ;  they  were  read 
with  the  greatest  eagerness ;  and  all  admired  the  bold- 
ness of  the  man  who  had  ventured  not  only  to  call  in 
question  the  plenitude  of  papal  power,  but  to  attack  the 


BOOK  ii.]  EMI'EEOR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  377 

Dominicans,  armed  with  all  the  terrors  of  inquisitorial 
authority.11 

The  friars  of  St.  Augustine,  Luther's  own  order, 
though  addicted  with  no  less  obsequiousness  than  the 
other  monastic  fraternities  to  the  papal  see,  gave  no 
check  to  the  publication  of  these  uncommon  opinions. 
Luther  had,  by  his  piety  and  learning,  acquired  extra- 
ordinary authority  among  his  brethren ;  he  professed 
the  highest  regard  for  the  authority  of  the  pope ;  his 
professions  were  at  that  time  sincere ;  and  as  a  secret 
enmity,  excited  by  interest  or  emulation,  subsists  among 
all  the  monastic  orders  in  the  Romish  Church,  the 
Augustinians  were  highly  pleased  with  his  invectives 
against  the  Dominicans,  and  hoped  to  see  them  exposed 
to  the  hatred  and  scorn  of  the  people.  Nor  was  his 
sovereign,  the  elector  of  Saxony,  the  wisest  prince  at 
that  time  in  Germany,  dissatisfied  with  this  obstruction 
which  Luther  threw  in  the  way  of  the  publication  of 
indulgences.  He  secretly  encouraged  the  attempt,  and 
flattered  himself  that  this  dispute  among  the  ecclesias- 
tics themselves  might  give  some  check  to  the  exactions 
of  the  court  of  Rome,  which  the  secular  princes  had 
long,  though  without  success,  been  endeavouring  to 
oppose. 

Many  zealous  champions  immediately  arose  to  defend 
opinions  on  which  the  wealth  and  power  of  the  Church 
were  founded,  against  Luther's  attacks.  In  opposition 
to  his  theses,  Tetzel  published  counter-theses  at  Frank- 
fort on  the  Oder ;  Eccius,  a  celebrated  divine  of  Augs- 
burg, endeavoured  to  refute  Luther's  notions ;  and 
Prierias,  a  Dominican  friar,  master  of  the  sacred  palace, 
and  inquisitor- general,  wrote  against  him  with  all  the 
virulence  of  a  scholastic  disputant.  But  the  manner  in 
which  they  conducted  the  controversy  did  little  service 

11  Lutheri  Opera,  Jense,  1612,  of  Council  of  Trent,  by  F.  Paul,  p. 
vol.  i.  praefat.  3,  p.  2,  66. — Hist.  4. — Seckend.,  Com.  ApoL,  p.  16. 


378 


EEION  OF  THE 


[BOOK  n. 


to  their  cause.  Luther  attempted  to  combat  indulgences 
by  arguments  founded  in  reason  or  derived  from  Scrip- 
ture ;  they  produced  nothing  in  support  of  them  but  the 
sentiments  of  schoolmen,  the  conclusions  of  the  canon 
law,  and  the  decrees  of  popes.12  The  decision  of  judges 
so  partial  and  interested  did  not  satisfy  the  people,  who 
began  to  call  in  question  the  authority  even  of  these 
venerable  guides,  when  they  found  them  standing  in 
direct  opposition  to  the  dictates  of  reason  and  the  deter- 
minations of  the  Divine  law.1* 


18  F.  Paul,  p.  6. — Seckend.,p.40. 
— Pallavic.,  p.  8. 

13  Seckend.,p.  30. — Guicciardini 
has  asserted  two  things  with  regard 
to  the  first  promulgation  of  indul- 
gences : — 1.  That  Leo  bestowed  a 
gift  of  the  profits  arising  from  the 
sale  of  indulgences  in  Saxony,  and 
the  adjacent  provinces  of  Germany, 
upon  his  sister  Magdalen,  the  wife 
of  Francescetto  Cibo.  (Guic.,  lib. 
xiii.  168.)  2.  That  Arcemboldo, 
a  Genoese  ecclesiastic,  who  had 
been  bred  a  merchant,  and  still 
retained  all  the  activity  and  ad- 
dress of  that  profession,  was  ap- 
pointed by  her  to  collect  the  money 
which  should  be  raised.  F.  Paul 
has  followed  him  in  both  these  par- 
ticulars ;  and  adds  that  the  Augus- 
tinians  in  Saxony  had  been  imme- 
morially  employed  in  preaching  in- 
dulgences, but  that  Arcemboldo  and 
his  deputies,  hoping  to  gain  more 
by  committing  this  trust  to  the 
Dominicans,  had  made  their  bar- 
gain with  Tetzel,  and  that  Luther 
was  prompted  at  first  to  oppose 
Tetzel  and  his  associates  by  a  desire 
of  taking  revenge  for  this  injury  of- 
fered to  his  order.  (F.  Paul,  p.  5.) 
Almost  all  historians  since  their 
time,  Popish  as  well  as  Protestant, 
have,  without  examination,  admitted 
these  assertions  to  be  true  upon 


their  authority.  But,  notwithstand- 
ing the  concurring  testimony  of  two 
authors  so  eminent  both  for  exact- 
ness and  veracity,  we  may  observe 
— 1.  That  Felix  Contolori,  who 
searched  the  pontifical  archives 
for  the  purpose,  could  not  find  this 
pretended  grant  to  Leo's  sister  in 
any  of  those  registers  where  it  must 
necessarily  have  been  recorded. 
(Pallav.,  p.  5.)  2.  That  the  profits 
arising  from  indulgences  in  Saxony 
and  the  adjacent  countries  had 
been  granted,  not  to  Magdalen,  but 
to  Albert,  archbishop  of  Mentz, 
who  had  the  right  of  nominating 
those  who  published  them.  (Seek., 
p.  12  ;  Luth.  Oper.,  i.,  Praef.  p.  i.  ; 
Pallav.,  p.  6.)  3.  That  Arcemboldo 
never  had  concern  in  the  publica- 
tion of  indulgences  in  Saxony  :  his 
district  was  Flanders  and  the  Upper 
and  Lower  Bhine.  (Seek.,  p.  14  ; 
Pallav.,  p.  6.)  4.  That  Luther 
and  his  adherents  never  mentioned 
this  grant  of  Leo's  to  his  sister, 
though  a  circumstance  of  which  they 
could  hardly  have  been  ignorant, 
and  which  they  would  have  been 
careful  not  to  suppress.  5.  The 
publication  of  indulgences  in  Ger- 
many was  not  usually  committed 
to  the  Augustinians.  The  promul- 
gation of  them,  at  three  different 
periods  under  Julius  II.,  was  granted 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  379 

Meanwhile,  these  novelties  in  Luther's  doctrines, 
which  interested  all  Germany,  excited  little  attention 
and  no  alarm  in  the  court  of  Rome.  Leo,  fond  of 
elegant  and  refined  pleasures,  intent  upon  great  schemes 
of  policy,  a  stranger  to  theological  controversies,  and 
apt  to  despise  them,  regarded  with  the  utmost  indiffer- 
ence the  operations  of  an  obscure  friar  who,  in  the  heart 
of  Germany,  carried  on  a  scholastic  disputation  in  a 
barbarous  style.  Little  did  he  apprehend,  or  Luther 
himself  dream,  that  the  effects  of  this  quarrel  would 
be  so  fatal  to  the  papal  see.  Leo  imputed  the  whole 
to  monastic  enmity  and  emulation,  and  seemed  inclined 
not  to  interpose  in  the  contest,  but  to  allow  the  Augus- 
tinians  and  Dominicans  to  wrangle  about  the  matter 
with  their  usual  animosity. 

The  solicitations,  however,  of  Luther's  adversaries, 
who  were  exasperated  to  a  high  degree  by  the  boldness 
and  severity  with  which  he  animadverted  on  their 
writings,  together  with  the  surprising  progress  which 
his  opinions  made  in  different  parts  of  Germany,  roused 
at  last  the  attention  of  the  court  of  Rome,  and  obliged 
Leo  to  take  measures  for  the  security  of  the  Church 

to  the  Franciscans ;  the  Dominicans  his  opposition  to  their  opinions  and 
had  been  employed  in  the  same  vices  proceeded  from  more  laud- 
office  a  short  time  before  the  present  able  motives.  (Seek.,  p.  1ft,  32; 
period.  (Pallav.,  p.  46.)  6.  The  Lutheri  Opera,  i.  p.  64,  6.)  8.  A 
promulgation  of  those  indulgences  diploma  of  indulgences  is  published 
which  first  excited  Luther's  indig-  by  Henn.  von  der  Hardt.  ficm 
nation  was  intrusted  to  the  arch-  which  it  appears  that  the  name  of 
bishop  of  Mentz,  in  conjunction  with  the  guardian  of  the  Franciscans  is 
the  guardian  of  the  Franciscans  ;  retained  together  with  that  of  the 
but  the  latter  having  declined  ac-  archbishop,  although  the  former 
cepting  of  that  trust,  the  sole  right  did  not  act.  The  limits  of  the 
became  vested  in  the  archbishop.  country  to  which  thoir  commission 
(Pallav.,  6;  Seek.,  16,  17.)  7.  Lu-  extended,  namely,  the  diocese  of 
ther  was  not  instigated  by  his  supe-  Mentz,  Magdeburg,  Halberstadt,  and 
riors  among  the  Augustinians  to  the  territories  of  the  marquis  of 
attack  the  Dominicans,  their  rivals,  Brandenburg,  are  mentioned  in  that 
or  to  depreciate  indulgences  because  diploma.  Hist.  Literaria  Reformat, 
they  were  promulgated  by  them  :  pars  iv.  p.  14. 


I.EIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

against  an  attack  that  now  appeared  too  serious  to  be 
despised.  For  this  end,  he  summoned  Luther  to  appear 
at  Borne,  within  sixty  days,  before  the  auditor  of  the 
chamber  and  the  inquisitor-general,  Prierias,  who  had 
written  against  him,  whom  he  empowered  jointly  to 
examine  his  doctrines  and  to  decide  concerning  them. 
He  wrote,  at  the  same  time,  to  the  elector  of  Saxony, 
beseeching  him  not  to  protect  a  man  whose  heretical 
and  profane  tenets  were  so  shocking  to  pious  ears,  and 
enjoined  the  provincial  of  the  Augustinians  to  check 
by  his  authority  the  rashness  of  an  arrogant  monk, 
which  brought  disgrace  upon  the  order  of  St.  Augus- 
tine and  gave  offence  and  disturbance  to  the  whole 
Church.  [1518.] 

From  the  strain  of  these  letters,  as  well  as  from  the 
nomination  of  a  judge  so  prejudiced  and  partial  as 
Prierias,  Luther  easily  saw  what  sentence  he  might 
expect  at  Eome.  He  discovered,  for  that  reason,  the 
utmost  solicitude  to  have  his  cause  tried  in  Germany 
and  before  a  less  suspected  tribunal.  The  professors  in 
the  university  of  Wittemberg,  anxious  for  the  safety  of 
a  man  who  did  so  much  honour  to  their  society,  wrote 
to  the  pope,  and,  after  employing  several  pretexts  to 
excuse  Luther  from  appearing  at  Koine,  entreated  Leo 
to  commit  the  examination  of  his  doctrines  to  some 
persons  of  learning  and  authority  in  Germany.  The 
elector  requested  the  same  thing  of  the  pope's  legate 
at  the  diet  of  Augsburg ;  and  as  Luther  himself,  who 
at  that  time  was  so  far  from  having  any  intention  to 
disclaim  the  papal  authority  that  he  did  not  even 
entertain  the  smallest  suspicion  concerning  its  divine 
original,  had  written  to  Leo  a  most  submissive  letter, 
promising  an  unreserved  compliance  with  his  will,  the 
pope  gratified  them  so  far  as  to  empower  his  legate  in 
Geiniany,  Cardinal  Cajetan,  a  Dominican,  eminent  for 


BOOK  it.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  381 

scholastic   learning,    and   passionately  devoted    to    the 
Eoinan  see,  to  hear  and  determine  the  cause. 

Luther,  though  he  had  good  reason  to  decline  a  judge 
chosen  among  his  avowed  adversaries,  did  not  hesitate 
about  appearing  before  Cajetan,  and,  having  obtained 
the  emperor's  safe-conduct,  immediately  repaired  to 
Augsburg.  The  cardinal  received  him  with  decent  re- 
spect, and  endeavoured  at  first  to  gain  upon  him  by 
gentle  treatment.  The  cardinal,  relying  on  the  supe- 
riority of  his  own  talents  as  a  theologian,  entered  into 
a  formal  dispute  with  Luther  concerning  the  doctrines 
contained  in  his  theses.14  But  the  weapons  which  they 
employed  were  so  different,  Cajetan  appealing  to  papal 
decrees  and  the  opinions  of  schoolmen,  and  Luther 
resting  entirely  on  the  authority  of  Scripture,  that  the 
contest  was  altogether  fruitless.  The  cardinal  relin- 
quished the  character  of  a  disputant,  and,  assuming  that 
of  a  judge,  enjoined  Luther,  by  virtue  of  the  apostolic 
powers  with  which  he  was  clothed,  to  retract  the  errors 
which  he  had  uttered  with  regard  to  indulgences  and 
the  nature  of  faith,  and  to  abstain  for  the  future  from 
the  publication  of  new  and  dangerous  opinions.  Luther, 
fully  persuaded  of  the  truth  of  his  own  tenets,  and  con- 
firmed in  the  belief  of  them  by  the  approbation  which 
they  had  met  with  among  persons  conspicuous  both  for 
learning  and  piety,  was  surprised  at  this  abrupt  mention 
of  a  recantation  before  any  endeavours  were  used  to 
convince  him  that  he  was  mistaken.  He  had  flattered 
himself  that  in  a  conference  concerning  the  points  in 
dispute  with  a  prelate  of  such  distinguished  abilities  he 
should  be  able  to  remove  many  of  those  imputations 
with  which  the  ignorance  or  malice  of  his  antagonists 

14  In  the  former  editions  I  as-  sobre,  in  his  Histoire  de  la  Re'for- 

serted,  upon  the  authority  of  Father  mation,   vol.    i.    p.    121,   etc.,   has 

Paul,   that  Cajetan  thought  it  be-  satisfied  me  that  I  was  mistaken, 

neath  his  dignity  to  enter  into  any  See  also  Seckend.,  lib.  i.  p.  46,  eta 
dispute  with  Luther ;  but  M.  Beau- 


382  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  u. 

had  loaded  him ;  but  the  high  tone  of  authority  that 
the  cardinal  assumed  extinguished  at  once  all  hopes  of 
this  kind,  and  cut  off  every  prospect  of  advantage  from 
the  interview.  His  native  intrepidity  of  mind,  however, 
did  not  desert  him.  He  declared  with  the  utmost  firm- 
ness that  he  could  not,  with  a  safe  conscience,  renounce 
opinions  which  he  believed  to  be  true ;  nor  should  any 
consideration  ever  induce  him  to  do  what  would  be  so 
base  in  itself  and  so  offensive  to  God.  At  the  same 
time,  he  continued  to  express  no  less  reverence  than 
formerly  for  the  authority  of  the  apostolic  see ; 15  he 
signified  hs  willingness  to  submit  the  whole  controversy 
to  certain  universities  which  he  named,  and  promised 
neither  to  write  nor  to  preach  concerning  indulgences 
for  the  future,  provided  his  adversaries  were  likewise 
enjoined  to  be  silent  with  respect  to  them.16  All  these 
offers  Cajetan  disregarded  or  rejected,  and  still  insisted 
peremptorily  on  a  simple  recantation,  threatening  him 
with  ecclesiastical  censures,  and  forbidding  him  to  appeal- 
again  in  his  presence  unless  he  resolved  instantly  to 
comply  with  what  he  had  required.  This  haughty  and 
violent  manner  of  proceeding,  as  well  as  other  circum- 
stances, gave  Luther's  friends  such  strong  reasons  to 
suspect  that  even  the  imperial  safe-conduct  would  not 
be  able  to  protect  him  from  the  legate's  power  and 
resentment,  that  they  prevailed  on  him  to  withdraw 
secretly  from  Augsburg  and  to  return  to  his  own 
country.  But  before  his  departure,  according  to  a  form 
of  which  there  had  been  some  examples,  he  prepared  a 
solemn  appeal  from  the  pope,  ill  informed  at  that  time 
concerning  his  cause,  to  the  pope  when  he  should  receive 
more  full  information  with  respect  to  it.17 

Cajetan,  enraged  at  Luther's  abrupt  retreat  and  at 

15  LutL,  Oper.,  voL  i.  p.  164.  — Seckend.,  p.  45. — LutL,  Oper., 

16  Ibid.,  160.  i.  163. 

17  Sleid.,  Hist,   of  Reform.,  p.  7. 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  383 

the  publication  of  his  appeal,  wrote  to  the  elector  of 
Saxony,  complaining  of  both,  and  requiring  him,  as  he 
regarded  the  peace  of  the  Church  or  the  authority  of 
its  head,  either  to  send  that  seditious  monk  a  prisoner 
to  Rome,  or  to  banish  him  out  of  his  territories.  It 
was  not  from  theological  considerations  that  Frederic 
had  hitherto  countenanced  Luther :  he  seems  to  have 
been  much  a  stranger  to  controversies  of  that  kind, 
and  to  have  been  little  interested  in  them.  His  pro- 
tection flowed  almost  entirely,  as  hath  been  already 
observed,  from  political  motives,  and  was  afforded  with 
great  secrecy  and  caution.  He  had  neither  heard  any 
of  Luther's  discourses  nor  read  any  of  his  books ;  and 
though  all  Germany  resounded  with  his  fame,  he  had 
never  once  admitted  him  into  his  presence.18  But  upon 
this  demand  which  the  cardinal  made,  it  became  neces- 
sary to  throw  off  somewhat  of  his  former  reserve.  He 
had  been  at  great  expense  and  had  bestowed  much 
attention  on  founding  a  new  university,  an  object  of 
considerable  importance  to  every  German  prince;  and, 
foreseeing  how  fatal  a  blow  the  removal  of  Luther  would 
be  to  its  reputation,19  he,  under  various  pretexts  and 
with  many  professions  of  esteem  for  the  cardinal,  as 
well  as  of  reverence  for  the  pope,  not  only  declined 
complying  with  either  of  his  requests,  but  openly  dis 
covered  great  concern  for  Luther's  safety.20 

The  inflexible  rigour  with  which  Cajetan  insisted  on 
a  simple  recantation  gave  great  offence  to  Luther's 
followers  in  that  age,  and  hath  since  been  censured  as 
imprudent  by  several  popish  writers.  But  it  was  im- 
possible for  the  legate  to  act  another  part.  The  judges 
before  whom  Luther  had  been  required  to  appear  at 
Rome  were  so  eager  to  display  their  zeal  against  his 

18  Seckend.,  p.  27.— Sleid.,  Hist,          »  SlekL,  Hist,  p.    10.— Lutk, 
p.  12.  Oper.,  i.  172. 

19  Weekend.,  p.  59. 


384  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

errors,  that,  without  waiting  for  the  expiration  of  sixty 
days  allowed  him  in  the  citation,  they  had  already 
con  lomned  him  as  a  heretic.21  Leo  had,  in  several  of 
his  briefs  and  letters,  stigmatized  him  as  a  child  of 
iniquity  and  a  man  given  up  to  a  reprobate  sense. 
Nothing  less,  therefore,  than  a  recantation  could  save 
the  honour  of  the  Church,  whose  maxim  it  is  never  to 
abandon  the  smallest  point  that  it  has  established,  and 
which  is  even  precluded,  by  its  pretensions  to  infalli- 
bility, from  having  it  in  its  power  to  do  so. 

Luther's  situation  at  this  time  was  such  as  would 
have  filled  any  other  person  with  the  most  disquieting 
apprehensions.  He  could  not  expect  that  a  prince  so 
prudent  and  cautious  as  Frederic  would  on  his  account 
set  at  defiance  the  thunders  of  the  Church,  and  brave 
the  papal  power,  which  had  crushed  some  of  the  most 
powerful  of  the  German  emperors.  He  knew  what 
veneration  was  paid,  in  that  age,  to  ecclesiastical  de- 
cisions ;  what  terrors  ecclesiastical  censures  carried 
along  with  them,  and  how  easily  these  might  intimi 
date  and  shake  a  prince  who  was  rather  his  protector 
from  policy  than  his  disciple  from  conviction.  If  he 
should  be  obliged  to  quit  Saxony,  he  had  no  prospect  of 
any  other  asylum,  and  must  stand  exposed  to  whatever 
punishment  the  rage  or  bigotry  of  his  enemies  could  inflict. 
Though  sensible  of  his  danger,  he  discovered  no  symp- 
toms of  timidity  or  remissness,  but  continued  to  vindicate 
his  own  conduct  and  opinions  and  to  inveigh  against  those 
of  his  adversaries  with  more  vehemence  than  ever.22 

But  as  every  step  taken  by  the  court  of  Eome,  par- 
ticularly the  irregular  sentence  by  which  he  had  been 
so  precipitately  declared  a  heretic,  convinced  Luther  that 
Leo  would  soon  proceed  to  the  most  violent  measures 
against  him,  he  had  recourse  to  the  only  expedient  in 

J1  Luther.,  Oper.,  L  161.  **  Seckend.,  p.  59. 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEROE  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  385 

his  power  in  order  to  prevent  the  effect  of  the  papal 
censures.  He  appealed  to  a  general  council,  which  he 
affirmed  to  be  the  representative  of  the  Catholic  Church 
and  superior  in  power  to  the  pope,  who,  being  a  fallible 
man,  might  err,  as  St.  Peter,  the  most  perfect  of  his 
predecessors,  had  erred.23 

It  soon  appeared  that  Luther  had  not  formed  rash 
conjectures  concerning  the  intentions  of  the  Romish 
Church.  A  bull  of  a  date  prior  to  his  appeal  was  issued 
by  the  pope,  in  which  he  magnifies  the  virtue  and 
efficacy  of  indulgences,  in  terms  as  extravagant  as  any 
of  his  predecessors  had  ventured  to  use  in  the  darkest 
ages;  and,  without  applying  such  palliatives  or  men- 
tioning such  concessions  as  a  more  enlightened  period 
and  the  disposition  in  the  minds  of  many  men  at  that 
juncture  seemed  to  call  for,  he  required  all  Christians 
to  assent  to  what  he  delivered  as  the  doctrine  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  and  subjected  those  who  should  hold 
or  teach  any  contrary  opinion  to  the  heaviest  ecclesias- 
tical censures. 

Among  Luther's  followers,  this  bull,  which  they 
considered  as  an  unjustifiable  effort  of  the  pope  in 
order  to  preserve  that  rich  branch  of  his  revenue  which 
arose  from  indulgences,  produced  little  effect.  But 
among  the  rest  of  his  countrymen,  such  a  clear  decision 
of  the  sovereign  pontiff  against  him,  and  enforced  by 
such  dreadful  penalties,  must  have  been  attended  with 
consequences  very  fatal  to  his  cause,  if  these  had  not 
been  prevented  in  a  great  measure  by  the  death  of  the 
emperor  Maximilian,  whom  both  his  principles  and  his 
interest  prompted  to  support  the  authority  of  the  holy 
see.  In  consequence  of  this  event,  the  vicariat  of  that 
part  of  Germany  which  is  governed  by  the  Saxon  laws 
devolved  to  the  elector  of  Saxony ;  and  under  the 
shelter  of  his  friendly  administration  Luther  not  only 

23  Sleid.,  Hist,  12,— Luth.,  Oper ,  i.  179. 
vou,  i.  CO 


386  EEION  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

* 
enjoyed   tranquillity,  but   his   opinions   were   suffered, 

during  the  interregnum  which  preceded  Charles's  elec- 
tion, to  take  root  in  different  places  and  to  grow  up  to 
some  degree  of  strength  and  firmness.  At  the  same 
time,  as  the  election  of  an  emperor  was  a  point  more 
interesting  to  Leo  than  a  theological  controversy,  which 
he  did  not  understand,  and  of  which  he  could  not  foresee 
the  consequences,  he  was  so  extremely  solicitous  not  to 
irritate  a  prince  of  such  considerable  influence  in  the 
electoral  college  as  Frederic,  that  he  discovered  a  great 
unwillingness  to  pronounce  the  sentence  of  excommuni- 
cation against  Luther,  which  his  adversaries  continually 
demanded  with  the  most  clamorous  importunity. 

To  these  political  views  of  the  pope,  as  well  as  to  his 
natural  aversion  from  severe  measures,  was  owing  the 
suspension  of  any  further  proceedings  against  Luther 
for  eighteen  months.  Perpetual  negotiations,  however, 
in  order  to  bring  the  matter  to  some  amicable  issue, 
were  carried  on  during  that  space.  The  manner  in 
which  these  were  conducted  having  given  Luther  many 
opportunities  of  observing  the  corruption  of  the  court 
of  Eome,  its  obstinacy  in  adhering  to  established  errors, 
and  its  indifference  about  truth,  however  clearly  pro- 
posed or  strongly  proved,  he  began  to  utter  some  doubts 
with  regard  to  the  divine  original  of  the  papal  authority. 
A  public  disputation  was  held  upon  this  important 
question  at  Leipsic,  between  Luther  and  Eccius,  one  of 
his  most  learned  and  formidable  antagonists ;  but  it  was 
as  fruitless  and  indecisive  as  such  scholastic  combats 
usually  prove.  Both  parties  boasted  of  having  obtained 
the  victory ;  both  were  confirmed  in  their  own  opinions ; 
and  no  progress  was  made  towards  deciding  the  point  in 
controversy.24 

Nor  did  the  spirit  of  opposition  to  the  doctrines  and 
usurpations  of  the  Eomish  Church  break  out  in  Saxony 

24  LutL,  Oper..  L  199. 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH  387 

alone :  an  attack  no  less  violent,  and  occasioned  by  the 
same  causes,  was  made  upon  them  about  this  time  in 
Switzerland.  The  Franciscans,  being  intrusted  with  the 
promulgation  of  indulgences  in  that  country,  executed 
their  commission  with  the  same  indiscretion  and  rapa- 
ciousness  which  had  rendered  the  Dominicans  so  odious 
in  Germany.  They  proceeded,  nevertheless,  with  unin- 
terrupted success,  until  they  arrived  at  Zurich.  There 
Zuinglius,  a  man  not  inferior  to  Luther  himself  in  zeal 
and  intrepidity,  ventured  to  oppose  them ;  and  teing 
animated  with  a  republican  boldness,  and  free  rrom 
those  restraints  which  subjection  to  the  will  of  a  prince 
imposed  on  the  German  Eeformer,  he  advanced  with 
more  daring  and  rapid  steps  to  overturn  the  whole  fabric 
of  the  established  religion.25  The  appearance  of  such  a 
vigorous  auxiliary,  and  the  progress  which  he  made, 
was,  at  first,  matter  of  great  joy  to  Luther.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  decrees  of  the  Universities  of  Cologne 
and  Louvain,  which  pronounced  his  opinions  to  be  erro- 
neous, afforded  great  cause  of  triumph  to  his  adversaries. 
But  the  undaunted  spirit  of  Luther  acquired  additional 
fortitude  from  every  instance  of  opposition  ;  and,  pushing 
on  his  inquiries  and  attacks  from  one  doctrine  to  another, 
he  began  to  shake  the  firmest  foundations  on  which  the 
wealth  or  power  of  the  Church  was  established.  Leo 
came  at  last  to  be  convinced  that  all  hopes  of  reclaiming 
him  by  forbearance  were  vain ;  several  prelates  of  great 
wisdom  exclaimed,  no  less  than  Luther's  personal  adver- 
saries, against  the  pope's  unprecedented  lenity  in  per- 
mitting an  incorrigible  heretic,  who  during  three  years 
had  been  endeavouring  to  subvert  everything  sacred, 
and  venerable,  still  to  remain  within  the  bosom  of  the 
Church  ;  the  dignity  of  the  papal  see  rendered  the  most 
vigorous  proceedings  necessary ;  the  new  emperor,  it 
was  hoped,  would  support  its  authority ;  nor  did  it  seem 

»  SleicL,  Hist,  22.— Seckend.,  59. 

o  o  2 


388  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

probable  that  the  elector  of  Saxony  would  so  far  forget 
his  usual  caution  as  to  set  himself  in  opposition  to  their 
united  power.  The  college  of  cardinals  was  often  assem- 
bled, in  order  to  prepare  the  sentence  with  due  delibera- 
tion, and  the  ablest  canonists  were  consulted  how  it 
might  be  expressed  with  unexceptionable  formality.  At 
last,  on  the  15th  of  June,  1520,  the  bull,  so  fatal  to  the 
Church  of  Eome,  was  issued.  Forty-one  propositions, 
extracted  out  of  Luther's  works,  are  therein  condemned 
as  heretical,  scandalous,  and  offensive  to  pious  ears ;  all 
persons  are  forbidden  to  read  his  writings  upon  pain  of 
excommunication ;  such  as  had  any  of  them  in  their 
custody  were  commanded  to  commit  them  to  the  flames  ; 
he  himself,  if  he  did  not  within  sixty  days  publicly 
recant  his  errors  and  burn  his  books,  is  pronounced  an 
obstinate  heretic,  is  excommunicated,  and  delivered  unto 
Satan  for  the  destruction  of  his  flesh;  and  all  secular 
princes  are  required,  under  pain  of  incurring  the  same 
censure,  to  seize  his  person,  that  he  might  be  punished 
as  his  crimes  deserved.26 

The  publication  of  this  bull  in  Germany  excited 
various  passions  in  different  places.  Luther's  adversaries 
exulted,  as  if  his  party  and  opinions  had  been  crushed 
at  once  by  such  a  decisive  blow.  His  followers,  whose 
reverence  for  the  papal  authority  daily  diminished,  read 
Leo's  anathemas  with  more  indignation  than  terror.  In 
some  cities  the  people  violently  obstructed  the  promulga- 
tion of  the  bull ;  in  others,  the  persons  who  attempted 
to  publish  it  were  insulted,  and  the  bull  itself  was  torn 
in  pieces  and  trodden  under  foot.27 

This  sentence,  which  he  had  for  some  time  expected, 
did  not  disconcert  or  intimidate  Luther.  After  renewing 
his  appeal  to  the  general  council,  he  published  remarks 
upon  the  bull  of  excommunication ;  and,  being  now 

*  Pallav.,  27.— Lutk,  Oper.,  i.  423.  27  Seckend.,  p.  1J6. 


HOOK  n.J  EMPEROE  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  389 

persuaded  that  Leo  had  been  guilty  both  of  impiety  and 
injustice  in  his  proceedings  against  him,  he  boldly  de- 
clared the  pope  to  be  that  man  of  sin,  or  Antichrist, 
whose  appearance  is  foretold  in  the  New  Testament ;  he 
declaimed  against  his  tyranny  and  usurpations  with 
greater  violence  than  ever;  he  exhorted  all  Christian 
princes  to  shake  off  such  an  ignominious  yoke,  and 
boasted  of  his  own  happiness  in  being  marked  out  as 
the  object  of  ecclesiastical  indignation,  because  he  had 
ventured  to  assert  the  liberty  of  mankind.  Nor  did  he 
confine  his  expressions  of  contempt  for  the  papal  power 
to  words  alone :  Leo  having,  in  execution  of  the  bull, 
appointed  Luther's  books  to  be  burnt  at  Eome,  he,  by 
way  of  retaliation,  assembled  all  the  professors  and 
students  in  the  University  of  Wittemberg,  and  with 
great  pomp,  in  presence  of  a  vast  multitude  of  specta- 
tors, cast  the  volumes  of  the  canon  law,  together  with 
the  bull  of  excommunication,  into  the  flames ;  and  his 
example  was  imitated  in  several  cities  of  Germany.  The 
manner  in  which  he  justified  this  action  was  still  more 
offensive  than  the  action  itself.  Having  collected  from 
the  canon  law  some  of  the  most  extravagant  propositions 
with  regard  to  the  plenitude  and  omnipotence  of  the 
papal  power,  as  well  as  the  subordination  of  all  secular 
jurisdiction  to  the  authority  of  the  holy  see,  he  published 
these  with  a  commentary,  pointing  out  the  impiety  of 
such  tenets  and  their  evident  tendency  to  subvert  all  civil 
government.28 

Such  was  the  progress  which  Luther  had  made,  and 
such  the  state  of  his  party,  when  Charles  arrived  in 
Germany.  No  secular  prince  had  hitherto  embraced 
Luther's  opinions ;  no  change  in  the  established  forms 
of  worship  had  been  introduced ;  and  no  encroachments 
had  been  made  upon  the  possessions  or  jurisdiction  of 
the  clergy ;  neither  party  had  yet  proceeded  to  action ; 
88  Lutk,  Oper.,  ii  316. 


390  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

and  the  controversy,  though  conducted  with  great  heat 
and  passion  on  both  sides,  was  still  carried  on  with  its 
proper  weapons, — with  theses,  disputations,  and  replies. 
A  deep  impression,  however,  was  made  upon  the  minds 
of  the  people ;  their  reverence  for  ancient  institutions 
and  doctrines  was  shaken ;  and  the  materials  were  already 
scattered  which  kindled  into  the  combustion  that  soon 
spread  over  all  Germany.  Students  crowded  from  every 
province  of  the  empire  to  Wittemberg ;  and  under 
Luther  himself,  Melancthon,  Carlostadius,  and  other 
masters  then  reckoned  eminent,  imbibed  opinions  which, 
on  their  return,  they  propagated  among  their  country- 
men, who  listened  to  them  with  that  fond  attention 
which  truth,  when  accompanied  with  novelty,  naturally 
commands.29 

During  the  course  of  these  transactions  the  court  of 
Borne,  though  under  the  direction  of  one  of  its  ablest 
pontiffs,  neither  formed  its  schemes  with  that  profound 
sagacity  nor  executed  them  with  that  steady  perse- 
verance which  had  long  rendered  it  the  most  perfect 
model  of  political  wisdom  to  the  rest  of  Europe.  When 
Luther  began  to  declaim  against  indulgences,  two  differ- 
ent methods  of  treating  him  lay  before  the  pope,  by 
adopting  one  of  which  the  attempt,  it  is  probable,  might 
have  been  crushed,  and  by  the  other  it  might  have  been 
rendered  innocent.  If  Luther's  first  departure  from  the 
doctrines  of  the  Church  had  instantly  drawn  upon  him 
the  weight  of  its  censures,  the  dread  of  these  might  have 
restrained  the  elector  of  Saxony  from  protecting  him, 
might  have  deterred  the  people  from  listening  to  his 
discourses,  or  even  might  have  overawed  Luther  him- 
self ;  and  his  name,  like  that  of  many  good  men  before 
his  time,  would  now  have  been  known  to  the  world  only 
for  his  honest  but  ill-timed  effort  to  correct  the  corrup- 
tions of  the  Eomish  Church.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the 

29  Seckend.,  59. 


BOOK  n.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH. 

pope  had  early  testified  some  displeasure  with  the  vices 
and  excesses  of  the  friars  who  had  been  employed  in 
publishing  indulgences,  if  he  had  forbidden  the  men- 
tioning of  controverted  points  in  discourses  addressed  to 
the  people,  if  he  had  enjoined  the  disputants  on  both 
sides  to  be  silent,  if  he  had  been  careful  not  to  risk  the 
credit  of  the  Church  by  defining  articles  which  had 
hitherto  been  left  undetermined,  Luther  would  probably 
have  stopped  short  at  his  first  discoveries :  he  would  not 
have  been  forced,  in  self-defence,  to  venture  upon  new 
ground,  and  the  whole  controversy  might  possibly  have 
died  away  insensibly,  or,  being  confined  entirely  to  the 
schools,  might  have  been  carried  on  with  as  little  detri- 
ment to  the  peace  and  unity  of  the  Romish  Church  as 
that  which  the  Franciscans  maintained  with  the  Do- 
minicans concerning  the  immaculate  conception,  or  that 
between  the  Jansenists  and  Jesuits  concerning  the  opera- 
tions of  grace.  But  Leo,  by  fluctuating  between  these 
opposite  systems,  and  by  embracing  them  alternately, 
defeated  the  effects  of  both.  By  an  improper  exertion 
of  authority,  Luther  was  exasperated,  but  not  restrained. 
By  a  mistaken  exercise  of  lenity,  time  was  given  for  his 
opinions  to  spread,  but  no  progress  was  made  towards 
reconciling  him  to  the  Church ;  and  even  the  sentence 
of  excommunication,  which  at  another  juncture  might 
have  been  decisive,  was  delayed  so  long  that  it  became 
at  last  scarcely  an  object  of  terror. 

Such  a  series  of  errors  in  the  measures  of  a  court 
seldom  chargeable  with  mistaking  its  own  true  interest 
is  not  more  astonishing  than  the  wisdom  which  appeared 
in  Luther's  conduct.  Though  a  perfect  stranger  to  the 
maxims  of  worldly  wisdom,  and  incapable,  from  the 
impetuosity  of  his  temper,  of  observing  them,  he  was 
led  naturally,  by  the  method  in  which  he  made  his 
discoveries,  to  carry  on  his  operations  in  a  manner 
which  contributed  more  to  their  success  than  if  every 


392  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

step  he  took  had  been  prescribed  by  the  most  artful 
policy.  At  the  time  when  he  set  himself  to  oppose 
Tetzel,  he  was  far  from  intending  that  reformation  which 
he  afterwards  effected,  and  would  have  trembled  with 
horror  at  the  thoughts  of  what  at  last  he  gloried  in 
accomplishing.  The  knowledge  of  truth  was  not  poured 
into  his  mind  all  at  once  by  any  special  revelation ;  he 
acquired  it  by  industry  and  meditation,  and  his  progress, 
of  consequence,  was  gradual.  The  doctrines  of  popery 
are  so  closely  connected  that  the  exposing  of  one  error 
conducted  him  naturally  to  the  detection  of  others  ;  and 
all  the  parts  of  that  artificial  fabric  were  so  united 
together  that  the  pulling  down  of  one  loosened  the 
foundation  of  the  rest  and  rendered  it  more  easy  to  over- 
turn them.  In  confuting  the  extravagant  tenets  con- 
cerning indulgences,  he  was  obliged  to  inquire  into  the 
true  cause  of  our  justification  and  acceptance  with  God. 
The  knowledge  of  that  discovered  to  him  by  degrees  the 
inutility  of  pilgrimages  and  penances ;  the  vanity  of 
relying  on  the  intercession  of  saints ;  the  impiety  of 
worshipping  them ;  the  abuses  of  auricular  confession ; 
and  the  imaginary  existence  of  purgatory.  The  detec- 
tion of  so  many  errors  led  him,  of  course,  to  consider 
the  character  of  the  clergy  who  taught  them ;  and  their 
exorbitant  wealth,  the  severe  injunction  of  celibacy, 
together  with  the  intolerable  rigour  of  monastic  vows, 
appeared  to  him  the  great  sources  of  their  corruption. 
From  thence  it  was  but  one  step  to  call  in  question  the 
divine  original  of  the  papal  power,  which  authorized 
and  supported  such  a  system  of  errors.  As  the  unavoid- 
able result  of  the  whole,  he  disclaimed  the  infallibility 
of  the  pope,  the  decisions  of  schoolmen,  or  any  other 
human  authority,  and  appealed  to  the  word  of  God  as 
the  only  standard  of  theological  truth.  To  this  gradual 
progress  Luther  owed  his  success.  His  hearers  were 
not  shocked  at  first  by  any  proposition  too  repugnant 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEROB  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  398 

to  their  ancient  prejudices  or  too  remote  from  estab- 
lished opinions.  They  were  conducted  insensibly  from 
one  doctrine  to  another.  Their  faith  and  conviction 
were  able  to  keep  pace  with  his  discoveries.  To  the 
same  cause  was  owing  the  inattention,  and  even  indiffer- 
ence, with  which  Leo  viewed  Luther's  first  proceedings. 
A  direct  or  violent  attack  upon  the  authority  of  the 
Church  would  at  once  have  drawn  upon  Luther  the 
whole  weight  of  its  vengeance ;  but  as  this  was  far  from 
his  thoughts,  as  he  continued  long  to  profess  great 
respect  for  the  pope,  and  made  repeated  offers  of  sub- 
mission to  his  decisions,  there  seemed  to  be  no  reason 
for  apprehending  that  he  would  prove  the  author  of  any 
desperate  revolt ;  and  he  was  suffered  to  proceed,  step 
by  step,  in  undermining  the  constitution  of  the  Church, 
until  the  remedy  applied  at  last  came  too  late  to  produce 
any  effect. 

But  whatever  advantages  Luther's  cause  derived, 
either  from  the  mistakes  of  his  adversaries  or  from  his 
own  good  conduct,  the  sudden  progress  and  firm  estab- 
lishment of  his  doctrines  must  not  be  ascribed  to  these 
alone.  The  same  corruptions  in  the  Church  of  Rome 
which  he  condemned  had  been  attacked  long  before 
his  time.  The  same  opinions  which  he  now  propagated 
had  been  published  in  different  places,  and  were  sup- 
ported by  the  same  arguments.  Waldus  in  the  twelfth 
century,  Wickliff  in  the  fourteenth,  and  Huss  in  the 
fifteenth,  had  inveighed  against  the  errors  of  popery 
with  great  boldness,  and  confuted  them  with  more  inge- 
nuity and  learning  than  could  have  been  expected  in 
those  illiterate  ages  in  which  they  flourished.  But  all 
these  premature  attempts  towards  a  reformation  proved 
abortive.  Such  feeble  lights,  incapable  of  dispelling 
the  darkness  which  then  covered  the  Church,  were  soon 
extinguished ;  and  though  the  doctrines  of  these  pious 
men  produced  some  effects  and  left  some  traces  in  the 


394  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  11. 

countries  where  they  taught,  they  were  neither  extensive 
nor  considerable.  Many  powerful  causes  contributed  to 
facilitate  Luther's  progress,  which  either  did  not  exist, 
or  did  not  operate  with  full  force,  in  their  days  ;  and 
at  that  critical  and  mature  juncture  when  he  appeared, 
circumstances  of  every  kind  concurred  in  rendering 
each  step  that  he  took  successful. 

The  long  and  scandalous  schism  which  divided  the 
Church  during  the  latter  part  of  the  fourteenth  and  the 
beginning  of  the  fifteenth  centuries  had  a  great  effect  in 
diminishing  the  veneration  with  which  the  world  had 
been  accustomed  to  -view  the  papal  dignity.  Two  or 
three  contending  pontiffs  roaming  about  Europe  at  a 
time,  fawning  on  the  princes  whom  they  wanted  to  gain, 
extorting  large  sums  of  money  from  the  countries  which 
acknowledged  their  authority,  excommunicating  their 
rivals,  and  cursing  those  who  adhered  to  them,  dis- 
credited their  pretensions  to  infallibility  and  exposed 
both  their  persons  and  their  office  to  contempt.  The 
laity,  to  whom  all  parties  appealed,  came  to  learn  that 
some  right  of  private  judgment  belonged  to  them,  and 
acquired  the  exercise  of  it  so  far  as  to  choose,  among 
these  infallible  guides,  whom  they  would  please  to  follow. 
The  proceedings  of  the  councils  of  Constance  and  Basil 
spread  this  disrespect  for  the  Romish  see  still  wider, 
and,  by  their  bold  exertion  of  authority  in  deposing  and 
electing  popes,  taught  men  that  there  was  in  the  Church 
a  jurisdiction  superior  even  to  the  papal  power,  which 
they  had  long  believed  to  be  supreme. 

The  wound  given  on  that  occasion  to  the  papal  autho- 
rity was  scarcely  healed  up  when  the  pontificates  of 
Alexander  VI.  and  Julius  II.,  both  able  princes,  but 
detestable  ecclesiastics,  raised  new  scandal  in  Christen- 
dom. The  profligate  morals  of  the  former  in  private 
life,  the  fraud,  the  injustice,  and  cruelty  of  his  public 
administration,  place  him  on  a  level  with  those  tyrants 


n.]  EMPEROR  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  395 

whose  deeds  are  the  greatest  reproach  to  human  nature. 
The  latter,  though  a  stranger  to  the  odious  passions 
which  prompted  his  predecessor  to  commit  so  many 
unnatural  crimes,  was  under  the  dominion  of  a  restless 
and  ungovernable  ambition,  that  scorned  all  considera- 
tions of  gratitude,  of  decency,  or  of  justice,  when  they 
obstructed  the  execution  of  his  schemes.  It  was  hardly 
possible  to  be  firmly  persuaded  that  the  infallible  know- 
ledge of  a  religion  whose  chief  precepts  are  purity  and 
humility  was  deposited  in  the  breasts  of  the  profligate 
Alexander  or  the  overbearing  Julius.  The  opinion  of 
those  who  exalted  the  authority  of  a  council  above  that 
of  the  pope  spread  wonderfully  under  their  pontificates ; 
and  as  the  emperor  and  French  kings,  who  were  alter- 
nately engaged  in  hostilities  with  those  active  pontiffs, 
permitted  and  even  encouraged  their  subjects  to  expose 
their  vices  with  all  the  violence  of  invective  and  all  the 
petulance  of  ridicule,  men's  ears  being  accustomed  to 
these  were  not  shocked  with  the  bold  or  ludicrous  dis- 
courses of  Luther  and  his  followers  concerning  the  papal 
dignity. 

Nor  were  such  excesses  confined  to  the  head  of  the 
Church  alone.  Many  of  the  dignified  clergy,  secular 
as  well  as  regular,  being  the  younger  sons  of  noble 
families,  who  had  assumed  the  ecclesiastical  character 
for  no  other  reason  but  that  they  found  in  the  Church 
stations  of  great  dignity  and  affluence,  were  accustomed 
totally  to  neglect  the  duties  of  their  office,  and  indulged 
themselves  without  reserve  in  all  the  vices  to  which  great 
wealth  and  idleness  naturally  give  birth.  Though  the 
inferior  clergy  were  prevented  by  their  poverty  from 
imitating  the  expensive  luxury  of  their  superiors,  yet 
gross  ignorance  and  low  debauchery  rendered  them  as 
contemptible  as  the  others  were  odious.30  The  severe 

30  The  corrupt  state  of  the  Church  ledged  by  an  author  who  was  both 
prior  to  the  Reformation  is  acknow-  abundantly  able  to  judge  concerning 


396 


REIGN  OF  THE 


[BOOK  it 


and  unnatural  law  of  celibacy,  to  which  both  were 
equally  subject,  occasioned  such  irregularities  that  u 
several  parts  of  Europe  the  concubinage  of  priests  was 
not  only  permitted,  but  enjoined.  The  employing  of 
a  remedy  so  contrary  to  the  precepts  of  the  Christian 
religion  is  the  strongest  proof  that  the  crimes  it  was 
intended  to  prevent  were  both  numerous  and  flagrant. 
Long  before  the  sixteenth  century,  many  authors  of 
great  name  and  authority  give  such  descriptions  of  the 
dissolute  morals  of  the  clergy  as  seem  almost  incredible 
in  the  present  age.31  The  voluptuous  lives  of  ecclesias- 
tics occasioned  great  scandal,  not  only  because  their 


this  matter  and  who  was  not  over- 
forward  to  confess  it.  "  For  some 
years,"  says  Bellarmine,  "  before 
the  Lutheran  and  Calvinistic  here- 
sies were  published,  there  was  not 
(as  contemporary  authors  testify) 
any  severity  in  ecclesiastical  judica- 
tories,  any  discipline  with  regard 
to  morals,  any  knowledge  of  sacred 
literature,  any  reverence  for  divine 
things  :  there  was  not  almost  any 
religion  remaining."  Bellarminus, 
Concio  xxviii.,  Oper.,  torn.  vi.  col. 
296,  edit.  Colon.,  1617,  apud  Ger- 
desii  Hist.  Evan.  Eenovati,  vol.  i. 
p.  25. 

31  Centum  Gravamina  Nation. 
German,  in  Fascicule  Eer.  expetend. 
et  fugiendarum,  per  Ortuinum  Gra- 
tium,  vol.  L  p.  361.  See  innumer- 
able passages  to  the  same  purpose 
in  the  Appendix,  or  second  volume, 
published  by  Edw.  Brown.  See 
also  Herm.  von  der  Hardt,  Hist. 
Lit.  Reform.,  pars,  iii,  and  the  vast 
collections  of  Wai  chins  in  his  four 
volumes  of  Monumenta  Medii  Mvi, 
Getting.,  1757. — The  authors  I 
have  quoted  enumerate  the  vices  of 
the  clergy.  When  they  ventured 
upon  actions  manifestly  criminal, 
we  may  conclude  that  they  would 


be  less  scrupulous  with  respect  to 
the  decorum  of  behaviour.  Ac- 
cordingly, their  neglect  of  the  decent 
conduct  suitable  to  their  profession 
seems  to  have  given  great  offence. 
In  order  to  illustrate  this,  I  shall 
transcribe  one  passage,  because  it 
is  not  taken  from  any  author  whose 
professed  purpose  it  was  to  de- 
scribe the  improper  conduct  of  the 
clergy,  and  who,  from  prejudice  or 
artifice,  may  be  supposed  to  aggra- 
vate the  charge  against  them.  The 
emperor  Charles  IV.,  in  a  letter  to 
the  archbishop  of  Mentz,  A.D.  1359, 
exhorting  him  to  reform  the  dis- 
orders of  the  clergy,  thus  expresses 
himself  :  "  De  Christi  patrimonio, 
ludos,  hastiludia  et  torneamenta 
exercent ;  habitum  militarem  cum 
praetextis  aureis  et  argenteis  gestant, 
et  calceos  militares ;  comam  et 
barbam  nutriunt,  et  nihil  quod  aJ. 
vitam  et  ordinem  ecclesiasticum 
spectat,  ostendunt.  Militaribus  se 
duntaxat  et  secularibus  actibus, 
vita  et  moribus,  in  suse  salutis  dis- 
pendiuin,  et  generale  populi  scanda- 
lum,  immiscent."  Codex  Diploma- 
ticus  Anecdotoruin,  per  Val.  Ferd 
Gudenum,  4to,  voL  iii.  p.  438 


BOOK  n.]  EMPEEOE  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  397 

manners  were  inconsistent  with  their  sacred  character, 
but  the  laity,  being  accustomed  to  see  several  of  them 
raised  from  the  lowest  stations  to  the  greatest  affluence, 
did  not  show  the  same  indulgence  to  their  excesses  as 
to  those  of  persons  possessed  of  hereditary  wealth  or 
grandeur ;  and,  viewing  their  condition  with  more  envy, 
they  censured  their  crimes  with  greater  severity. 
Nothing,  therefore,  could  be  more  acceptable  to  Luther's 
hearers  than  the  violence  with  which  he  exclaimed 
against  the  immoralities  of  churchmen ;  and  every  per- 
son in  his  audience  could,  from  his  own  observation, 
confirm  the  truth  of  his  invectives. 

The  scandal  of  these  crimes  was  greatly  increased  by 
the  facility  with  which  such  as  committed  them  obtained 
pardon.  In  all  the  European  kingdoms,  the  importance 
of  the  civil  magistrate,  under  forms  of  government  ex- 
tremely irregular  and  turbulent,  made  it  necessary  to 
relax  the  rigour  of  justice;  and,  upon  payment  of  a 
certain  fine  or  composition  prescribed  by  law,  judges 
were  accustomed  to  remit  further  punishment,  even  of 
the  most  atrocious  crimes.  The  court  of  Rome,  always 
attentive  to  the  means  of  augmenting  its  revenues, 
imitated  this  practice,  and,  by  a  preposterous  accom- 
modation of  it  to  religious  concerns,  granted  its  pardons 
to  such  transgressors  as  gave  a  sum  of  money  in  order 
to  purchase  them.  As  the  idea  of  a  composition  for 
crimes  was  then  familiar,  this  strange  traffic  was  so  far 
from  shocking  mankind,  that  it  soon  became  general ; 
and,  in  order  to  prevent  any  imposition  in  carrying  it 
on,  the  officers  of  the  Roman  chancery  published  a  book 
containing  the  precise  sum  to  be  exacted  for  the  pardon 
of  every  particular  sin.  A  deacon  guilty  of  murder 
was  absolved  for  twenty  crowns.  A  bishop,  or  abbot, 
might  assassinate  for  three  hundred  livres.  Any  ecclesi- 
astic might  violate  his  vows  of  chastity,  even  with  the 
most  aggravating  circumstances,  for  the  third  part  of 


398  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

that  sum.  Even  such  shocking  crimes  as  occur  seldom 
in  human  life,  and  perhaps  exist  only  in  the  impure 
imagination  of  a  casuist,  were  taxed  at  a  very  moderate 
rate.  When  a  more  regular  and  perfect  mode  of  dis- 
pensing justice  came  to  be  introduced  into  civil  courts, 
the  practice  of  paying  a  composition  for  crimes  went 
gradually  into  disuse;  and,  mankind  having  acquired 
more  accurate  notions  concerning  religion  and  morality, 
the  conditions  on  which  the  courts  of  Home  bestowed  its 
pardons  appeared  impious,  and  were  considered  as  one 
great  source  of  ecclesiastical  corruption.32 

This  degeneracy  of  manners  among  the  clergy  might 
have  been  tolerated,  perhaps,  with  greater  indulgence, 
if  their  exorbitant  riches  and  power  had  not  enabled 
them  at  the  same  time  to  encroach  on  the  rights  of 
every  other  order  of  men.  It  is  the  genius  of  super- 
stition, fond  of  whatever  is  pompous  or  grand,  to  set  no 
bounds  to  its  liberality  towards  persons  whom  it  esteems 
sacred,  and  to  think  its  expressions  of  regard  defective 
unless  it  hath  raised  them  to  the  height  of  wealth  and 
authority.  Hence  flowed  the  extensive  revenues  and 
jurisdiction  possessed  by  the  Church  in  every  country 
in  Europe,  and  which  were  become  intolerable  to  the 
laity,  from  whose  undiscerning  bounty  they  were  at  first 
derived. 

The  burden,  however,  of  ecclesiastical  oppression  had 
fallen  with  such  peculiar  weight  on  the  Germans  as 
rendered  them,  though  naturally  exempt  from  levity 
and  tenacious  of  their  ancient  customs,  more  inclinable 
than  any  people  in  Europe  to  listen  to  those  who  called 
on  them  to  assert  their  liberty.  During  the  long  con- 
tests between  the  popes  and  the  emperors  concerning 

32  FascicuL  Rer.  expet  et  fug.,  L  Banck  et  Tuppius. — Texa  Cancel 

355. — J.  G.   Schelhornii  Amoenit.  Romanae,  edit.  Francof.,  1651,  pas- 

Literar.  Francof.,   1725,  voL  ii.  p.  sim. 
369. — Diction,     de    Bayle,     artic. 


BOOK  it,]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  399 

the  right  of  investiture,  and  the  wars  which  these  occa- 
sioned, most  of  the  considerable  German  ecclesiastics 
joined  the  papal  faction  ;  and  while  engaged  in  rebellion 
against  the  head  of  the  empire,  they  seized  the  imperial 
domains  and  revenues  and  usurped  the  imperial  juris- 
diction within  their  own  dioceses.  Upon  the  re-esta- 
blishment of  tranquillity,  they  still  retained  these  usur- 
pations ;  as  if  by  the  length  of  an  unjust  possession  they 
had  acquired  a  legal  right  to  them.  The  emperors,  too 
feeble  to  wrest  them  out  of  their  hands,  were  obliged  to 
grant  the  clergy  fiefs  of  those  ample  territories;  and 
they  enjoyed  all  the  immunities,  as  well  as  honours, 
which  belonged  to  feudal  barons.  By  means  of  these, 
many  bishops  and  abbots  in  Germany  were  not  only 
ecclesiastics,  but  princes  ;  and  their  character  and  man- 
ners partook  more  of  the  license  too  frequent  amoug  the 
latter,  than  of  the  sanctity  which  became  the  former.33 

The  unsettled  state  of  government  in  Germany,  and 
the  frequent  wars  to  which  that  country  was  exposed, 
contributed  in  another  manner  towards  aggrandizing 
ecclesiastics.  The  only  property,  during  those  times 
of  anarchy,  which  enjoyed  security  from  the  oppression 
of  the  great,  or  the  ravages  of  war,  was  that  which 
belonged  to  the  Church.  This  was  owing  not  only  to 
the  great  reverence  for  the  sacred  character  prevalent  in 
those  ages,  but  to  a  superstitious  dread  of  the  sentence 
of  excommunication,  which  the  clergy  were  ready  to 
denounce  against  all  who  invaded  their  possessions. 
Many,  observing  this,  made  a  surrender  of  their  lands 
to  ecclesiastics,  and,  consenting  to  hold  them  in  fee  of 
the  Church,  obtained,  as  its  vassals,  a  degree  of  safety 
which  without  this  device  they  were  unable  to  procure. 
By  such  an  increase  of  the  number  ot*  their  vassals,  the 
power  of  ecclesiastics  received  a  real  and  permanent 

"  F,  Paul,  History  of  Ecclesiastical  Benefices,  p.  107 


400  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  11. 

-augmentation ;  and,  as  lands  held  in  fee  by  the  limited 
tenures  common  in  those  ages  of  tea  returned  to  the 
persons  on  whom  the  fief  depended,  considerable  addi- 
tions were  made  in  this  way  to  the  property  of  the 
clergy.34 

The  solicitude  of  the  clergy  in  providing  for  the 
safety  of  their  own  persons  was  still  greater  than  that 
which  they  displayed  in  securing  their  possessions ; 
and  their  efforts  to  attain  it  were  still  more  successful. 
As  they  were  consecrated  to  the  priestly  office  with 
much  outward  solemnity,  were  distinguished  from  the 
rest  of  mankind  by  a  peculiar  garb  and  manner  of  life, 
and  arrogated  to  their  order  many  privileges  which  do 
not  belong  to  other  Christians,  they  naturally  became 
the  objects  of  excessive  veneration.  As  a  superstitious 
spirit  spread,  they  were  regarded  as  beings  of  a  supe- 
rior species  to  the  profane  laity,  whom  it  would  be 
impious  to  try  by  the  same  laws  or  to  subject  to  the 
same  punishments.  This  exemption  from  civil  juris- 
diction, granted  at  first  to  ecclesiastics  as  a  mark  of 
respect,  they  soon  claimed  as  a  j  oint  of  right.  This 
valuable  immunity  of  the  priesthood  is  asserted  not 
only  in  the  decrees  of  popes  and  councils,  but  was  con- 
firmed in  the  most  ample  form  by  many  of  the  greatest 
emperors.35  As  long  as  the  clerical  character  remained, 
the  person  of  an  ecclesiastic  was  in  some  degree  sacred ; 
and  unless  he  were  degraded  from  his  office  the  un- 
hallowed hand  of  the  civil  judge  durst  not  touch  him. 
But,  as  the  power  of  degradation  was  lodged  in  the 
spiritual  courts,  the  difficulty  and  expense  of  obtaining 
such  a  sentence  too  often  secured  absolute  impunity 
to  offenders.  Many  assumed  the  clerical  character  for 
no  other  reason  than  that  it  might  screen  them  from 

34  F.  Paul,  Hist  of  Eccles.  Benef..  35  Goldasti  Const! tut.   Imperial., 

p.  66.  —  Boulainvilliers,  Etat  de  Francof.,  1673,  voL  ii  pp.  92, 
France,  torn.  i.  p.  169,  Lond.,  1737,  107. 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  401 

the  punishment  which  their  actions  deserved.36  The 
German  nobles  complained  loudly  that  these  anointed 
malefactors,  as  they  called  them,37  seldom  suffered  capi- 
tally, even  for  the  most  atrocious  crimes ;  and  their 
independence  of  the  civil  magistrate  is  often  mentioned 
in  the  remonstrances  of  the  diets,  as  a  privilege  equally 
pernicious  to  society  and  to  the  morals  of  the  clergy. 

While  the  clergy  asserted  the  privileges  of  their  own 
order  with  so  much  zeal,  they  made  continual  encroach- 
ments upon  those  of  the  laity.  All  causes  relative  to 
matrimony,  to  testaments,  to  usury,  to  legitimacy  of 
birth,  as  well  as  those  which  concerned  ecclesiastical 
revenues,  were  thought  to  be  so  connected  with  religion 
that  they  could  be  tried  only  in  the  spiritual  courts. 
Not  satisfied  with  this  ample  jurisdiction,  which  ex- 
tended to  one-half  of  the  subjects  that  gave  rise  to 
litigation  among  men,  the  clergy,  with  wonderful  in- 
dustry, and  by  a  thousand  inventions,  endeavoured  to 
draw  all  other  causes  into  their  own  courts.38  As  they 
had  engrossed  almost  the  whole  learning  known  in  the 
Dark  Ages,  the  spiritual  judges  were  commonly  so  far 
superior  in  knowledge  and  abilities  to  those  employed 
in  the  secular  courts  that  the  people  at  first  favoured 
any  stretch  that  was  made  to  bring  their  affairs  under 
£he  cognizance  of  a  judicature  on  the  decisions  of  which 
they  could  rely  with  more  perfect  confidence  than  on 
those  of  the  civil  courts.  Thus,  the  interest  of  the 
Church  and  the  inclination  of  the  people,  concurring  to 
elude  the  jurisdiction  of  the  lay-magistrate,  soon  reduced 
it  almost  to  nothing.39  By  means  of  this,  vast  power 
accrued  to  ecclesiastics,  and  no  inconsiderable  addition 
was  made  to  their  revenue  by  the  sums  paid  in  those 
ages  to  the  persons  who  administered  justice. 

**  Rymer's  Fcedera,  voL  xiii  p.  3S  Giannone,  History  of  Naples, 

532.  book  xix.  §  3. 

37  Centum  Gravam.,  §  31  3a  Centum  Gravam.,  §§  9,  56,  64, 

VOL.   1.  D  D 


402  REIGN  OF  ME  TBOOK  it. 

The  penalty  by  which  the  spiritual  courts  enforced 
their  sentences  added  great  weight  and  terror  to  their 
jurisdiction.  The  censure  of  excommunication  was 
instituted  originally  for  preserving  the  purity  of  the 
'Church ;  that  obstinate  offenders,  whose  impious  tenets 
or  profane  lives  were  a  reproach  to  Christianity,  might 
be  cut  'off  from  the  society  of  tlie  faithful :  this,  eccle- 
siastics did  not  scruple  to  convert  into  an  engine  for 
promoting  their  own  power,  and  they  inflicted  it  on  the 
most  frivolous  occasions.  Whoever  despised  any  of  their 
decisions,  even  concerning  civil  matters,  immediately 
incurred  this  dreadful  censure,  which  not  only  excluded 
them  from  all  the  privileges  of  a  Christian,  but  deprived 
them  of  their  rights  as  men  and  citizens ; 40  and  the 
dread  of  this  rendered  even  the  most  fierce  and  tur- 
bulent spirits  obsequious  to  the  authority  of  the  Church. 

Nor  did  the  clergy  neglect  the  proper  methods  of 
preserving  the  wealth  and  power  which  they  had  ac- 
quired  with  such  industry  and  address.  The  posses- 
sions of  the  Church,  being  consecrated  to  God,  were 
declared  to  be  unalienable;  so  that  the  funds  of  a 
society  which  was  daily  gaining  and  could  never  lose, 
grew  to  be  immense.  In  Germany,  it  was  computed 
that  the  ecclesiastics  had  got  into  their  hands  more  than 
one-half  of  the  national  property.41  In  other  countries 
the  proportion  varied;  but  the  share  belonging  to  the 
Church  was  everywhere  prodigious.  These  vast  pos- 
sessions were  not  subject  to  the  burdens  imposed  on 
the  lands  of  the  laity.  The  German  clergy  were  ex- 
empted by  law  from  all  taxes ; 42  and  if,  on  an  extra- 
ordinary emergence,  ecclesiastics  were  pleased  to  grant 
some  aid  towards  supplying  the  public  exigencies,  this 
was  considered  as  a  free  gift  flowing  from  their  own 

40  Centum  Gravam.,  §  34.  per.,  ii  79,  108.— Pfeffel,  Hist  du 

41  Ibid.,  §  28.  Droit  Pub].,  350,  374. 
a  Id.,  ibid  — Goldasti  Const  Iin- 


BOOK  ii.)  EMPEEOE  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  403 

generosity,  which  the  civil  magistrate  had  no  title  to 
demand,  far  less  to  exact.  In  consequence  of  this 
strange  solecism  in  government,  the  laity  in  Germany 
had  the  mortification  to  find  themselves  loaded  with 
excessive  impositions,  because  such  as  possessed  the 
greatest  property  were  freed  from  any  obligation  to 
support  or  defend  the  state. 

Grievous,  however,  as  the  exorbitant  wealth  and 
numerous  privileges  of  the  clerical  order  were  to  the 
other  members  of  the  Germanic  body,  they  would  have 
reckoned  it  some  mitigation  of  the  evil  if  these  had  been 
possessed  only  by  ecclesiastics  residing  among  them- 
selves, who  would  have  been  less  apt  to  make  an  im- 
proper use  of  their  riches  or  to  exercise  their  rights 
with  unbecoming  rigour.  But  the  bishops  of  Rome 
having  early  put  in  a  claim,  the  boldest  that  ever 
human  ambition  suggested,  of  being  supreme  and  in- 
fallible heads  of  the  Christian  Church,  they,  by  their 
profound  policy  and  unwearied  perseverance,  by  their 
address  in  availing  themselves  of  every  circumstance 
which  occurred,  by  taking  advantage  of  the  superstitiou 
of  some  princes,  of  the  necessities  of  others,  and  of  the 
credulity  of  the  people,  at  length  established  their  pre- 
tensions, in  opposition  both  to  the  interest  and  common 
sense  of  mankind.  Germany  was  the  country  which 
these  ecclesiastical  sovereigns  governed  with  most 
absolute  authority.  They  excommunicated  and  deposed 
some  of  its  most  illustrious  emperors,  and  excited  their 
subjects,  their  ministers,  and  even  their  children,  to 
take  arms  against  them.  Amidst  these  contests,  the 
popes  continually  extended  their  own  immunities,  spoil- 
ing the  secular  princes  gradually  of  their  most  valuable 
prerogatives ;  and  the  German  Church  felt  all  the  rigour 
of  that  oppression  which  flows  from  subjection  to  foreign 
dominion  and  foreign  exactions. 

The  right   of  conferring  benefices,  which  the  popes 

DD  2 


404  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

usurped  during  that  period  of  confusion,  was  an  acquisi- 
tion of  great  importance,  and  exalted  the  ecclesiastical 
power  upon  the  ruins  of  the  temporal.  The  emperors 
and  other  princes  of  Germany  had  long  been  in  posses- 
sion of  this  right,  which  served  to  increase  both  their 
authority  and  their  revenue ;  but  by  wresting  it  out  of 
their  hands  the  popes  were  enabled  to  fill  the  empire 
with  their  own  creatures  ;  they  accustomed  a  great  body 
of  every  prince's  subjects  to  depend,  not  upon  him,  but 
upon  the  Eoman  see ;  they  bestowed  upon  strangers  the 
richest  benefices  in  every  country,  and  drained  their 
wealth  to  supply  the  luxury  of  a  foreign  court.  Even 
the  patience  of  the  most  superstitious  ages  could  no 
longer  bear  such  oppression ;  and  so  loud  and  frequent 
were  the  complaints  and  murmurs  of  the  Germans  that 
the  popes,  afraid  of  irritating  them  too  far,  consented, 
contrary  to  their  usual  practice,  to  abate  somewhat  of 
their  pretensions,  and  to  rest  satisfied  with  the  right 
of  nomination  to  such  benefices  as  happened  to  fall 
vacant  during  six  months  in  the  year,  leaving  the  dis- 
posal of  the  remainder  to  the  princes  and  other  legal 
patrons.48 

But  the  court  of  Eome  easily  found  expedients  for 
eluding  an  agreement  which  put  such  restraints  on  its 
power.  The  practice  of  reserving  certain  benefices  in 
every  country  to  the  pope's  immediate  nomination, 
which  had  been  long  known,  and  often  complained  of, 
was  extended  far  beyond  its  ancient  bounds.  All  the 
benefices  possessed  by  cardinals  or  any  of  the  numer- 
ous officers  in  the  Eoman  court,  those  held  by  persons 
who  happened  to  die  at  Rome,  or  within  forty  miles  of 
that  city  on  their  journey  to  or  from  it,  such  as  became 
vacant  by  translation,  with  many  others,  were  included 
in  the  number  of  reserved  benefices.  Julius  II.  and 

*»  F.  Paul,  Hist  of  Eccles.  Benef.,  204.— Gold.,  Constit  Imper.,  i  408. 


BOOK  n.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  405 

Leo  X.,  stretching  the  matter  to  the  utmost,  often  col- 
lated to  benefices  where  the  right  of  reservation  had  not 
been  declared,  on  pretence  of  having  mentally  reserved 
this  privilege  to  themselves.  The  right  of  reservation, 
however,  even  with  this  extension,  had  certain  limits,  as 
it  could  be  exercised  only  where  the  benefice  was  actually 
vacant ;  and  therefore,  in  order  to  render  the  exertion  of 
papal  power  unbounded,  expectative  graces,  or  mandates 
nominating  a  person  to  succeed  to  a  benefice  upon  the 
first  vacancy  that  should  happen,  were  brought  into  use. 
By  means  of  these,  Germany  was  filled  with  persons  who 
were  servilely  dependent  on  the  court  of  Eome,  from 
which  they  had  received  such  reversionary  grants ; 
princes  were  defrauded,  in  a  great  degree,  of  their  pre- 
rogatives ;  the  rights  of  lay-patrons  were  preoccupied, 
and  rendered  almost  entirely  vain.44 

The  manner  in  which  these  extraordinary  powers 
were  exercised  rendered  them  still  more  odious  and 
intolerable.  The  avarice  and  extortion  of  the  court 
of  Eome  were  become  excessive,  almost  to  a  proverb. 
The  practice  of  selling  benefices  was  so  notorious  that 
no  pains  were  taken  to  conceal  or  to  disguise  it.  Com- 
panies of  merchants  openly  purchased  the  benefices  of 
different  districts  in  Germany  from  the  pope's  minis- 
ters, and  retailed  them  at  an  advanced  price.45  Pious 
men  beheld  with  deep  regret  these  simoniacal  transac- 
tions, so  unworthy  the  ministers  of  a  Christian  Church ; 
while  politicians  complained  of  the  loss  sustained  by 
the  exportation  of  so  much  wealth  in  that  irreligious 
traffic. 

The  sums,  indeed,  which  the  court  of  Eome  drew 
by  its  stated  and  legal  impositions  from  all  the  coun- 
tries acknowledging  its  authority  were  so  considerable 

44  Centum  Gravam.,  §  21.— Fas-      F.  Paul,  Hist,  of  EccL  Benet,  167, 
cic.  Rer.   expet.,  etc.,  334. — Gold.,       199. 
Const.  Iniper.,  i.  391,  404,  405. —          45  Fascic.  Rer.  expet.,  i.  35ft, 


406  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

that  it  is  not  strange  that  princes,  as  well  as  their  sub- 
jects, murmured  at  the  smallest  addition  made  to  them 
by  unnecessary  or  illicit  means.  Every  ecclesiastical 
person,  upon  his  admission  to  his  benefice,  paid  annats, 
or  one  year's  produce  of  his  living,  to  the  pope ;  and, 
as  that  tax  was  exacted  with  great  rigour,  its  amount 
was  very  great.  To  this  must  be  added  the  frequent 
demands  made  by  the  popes  of  free  gifts  from  the  clergy, 
together  with  the  extraordinary  levies  of  tenths  upon 
ecclesiastical  benefices,  on  pretence  of  expeditions 
against  the  Turks,  seldom  intended  or  carried  into  ex- 
ecution ;  and,  from  the  whole,  the  vast  proportion  of 
the  revenues  of  the  Church  which  flowed  continually 
to  Borne  may  be  estimated. 

Such  were  the  dissolute  manners,  the  exorbitant 
wealth,  the  enormous  power  and  privileges,  of  the 
clergy  before  the  Eeformation  ;  such  the  oppressive 
rigour  of  that  dominion  which  the  popes  had  established 
over  the  Christian  world ;  and  such  the  sentiments  con- 
cerning them  that  prevailed  in  Germany  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  sixteenth  century.  Nor  has  this  sketch 
been  copied  from  the  controversial  writers  of  that  age, 
who,  in  the  heat  of  disputation,  may  be  suspected  of 
having  exaggerated  the  errors  or  of  having  misrepre- 
sented the  conduct  of  that  Church  which  they  laboured 
to  overturn  :  it  is  formed  upon  more  authentic  evidence, 
— upon  the  memorials  and  remonstrances  of  the  imperial 
diets,  enumerating  the  grievances  under  which  the  em- 
pire groaned,  in  order  to  obtain  the  redress  of  them. 
Dissatisfaction  must  have  arisen  to  a  great  height  among 
the  people,  when  these  grave  assemblies  expressed  them- 
selves with  that  degree  of  acrimony  which  abounds  in 
their  remonstrances ;  and  if  they  demanded  the  aboli- 
tion of  these  enormities  with  so  much  vehemence,  the 
people,  we  may  be  assured,  uttered  their  sentiments  and 
desires  in  bolder  and  more  virulent  language. 


BOOK  ii. j  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  407 

To  men  thus  prepared  for  shaking  off  the  yoke, 
Luther  addressed  himself  with  certainty  of  success. 
As  they  had  long  felt  its  weight,  and  had  borne  it 
with  impatience,  they  listened  with  joy  to  the  first  offer 
of  procuring  them  deliverance.  Hence  proceeded  the 
fond  and  eager  reception  that  his  doctrines  met  with, 
and  the  rapidity  with  which  they  spread  over  all  the 
provinces  of  Germany.  Even  the  impetuosity  and 
fierceness  of  Luther's  spirit,  his  confidence  in  asserting 
his  own  opinions,  and  the  arrogance  as  well  as  con- 
tempt wherewith  he  treated  all  them  who  differed  from 
him,  which  in  ages  of  greater  moderation  and  refine- 
ment have  been  reckoned  defects  in  the  character  of 
that  Reformer,  did  not  appear  excessive  to  his  contem- 
poraries, whose  minds  were  strongly  agitated  by  those 
interesting  controversies  which  he  carried  on,  and  who 
had  themselves  endured  the  rigour  of  papal  tyranny  and 
seen  the  corruptions  in  the  Church  against  which  he 
exclaimed. 

Nor  were  they  offended  at  that  gross  scurrility  with 
which  his  polemical  writings  are  filled,  or  at  the  low 
buffoonery  which  he  sometimes  introduces  into  his 
gravest  discourses.  No  dispute  was  managed  in  those 
rude  times  without  a  large  portion  of  the  former ;  and 
the  latter  was  common,  even  on  the  most  solemn  occa- 
sions and  in  treating  the  most  sacred  subjects.  So  far 
were  either  of  these  from  doing  hurt  to  his  cause  that 
invective  and  ridicule  had  some  effect,  as  well  as  more 
laudable  arguments,  in  exposing  the  errors  of  popery 
and  in  determining  mankind  to  abandon  them. 

Besides  all  these  causes  of  Luther's  rapid  progress, 
arising  from  the  nature  of  his  enterprise  and  the  junc- 
ture at  which  he  undertook  it,  he  reaped  advantage 
from  some  foreign  and  adventitious  circumstances,  the 
beneficial  influence  of  which  none  of  his  forerunners  in 
the  same  course  enjoyed,.  Among  these  may  be  reckoned 


408  EEIGN  OF  THE  ,BOOK  n. 

the  invention  of  the  art  of  printing,  about  half  a  century 
before  his  time.  By  this  fortunate  discovery,  the  facility 
of  acquiring  and  of  propagating  knowledge  was  won- 
derfully increased ;  and  Luther's  books,  which  must 
otherwise  have  made  their  way  slowly  and  with  uncer- 
tainty into  distant  countries,  spread  out  at  once  all 
over  Europe.  Nor  were  they  read  only  by  the  rich 
and  the  learned,  who  alone  had  access  to  books  before 
that  invention :  they  got  into  the  hands  of  the  people, 
who,  upon  this  appeal  to  them  as  judges,  ventured  to 
examine  and  to  reject  many  doctrines  which  they  had 
formerly  been  required  to  believe  without  being  taught 
to  understand  them. 

The  revival  of  learning  at  the  same  period  was  a  cir- 
cumstance extremely  friendly  to  the  Reformation.  The 
study  of  the  ancient  Greek  and  Roman  authors,  by  en- 
lightening the  human  mind  with  liberal  and  sound 
knowledge,  roused  it  from  that  profound  lethargy  in 
which  it  had  been  sunk  during  several  centuries.  Man- 
kind seem,  at  that  period,  to  have  recovered  the  powers 
of  inquiring  and  of  thinking  for  themselves,  faculties 
of  which  they  had  long  lost  the  use ;  and,  fond  of  the 
acquisition,  they  exercised  them  with  great  boldness 
upon  all  subjects.  They  were  not  now  afraid  of  enter- 
ing an  uncommon  path  or  of  embracing  a  new  opinion. 
Novelty  appears  rather  to  have  been  a  recommendation 
of  a  doctrine ;  and,  instead  of  being  startled  when  the 
daring  hand  of  Luther  drew  aside  or  tore  the  veil  which 
covered  and  established  errors,  the  genius  of  the  age 
applauded  and  aided  the  attempt.  Luther,  though  a 
stranger  to  elegance  in  taste  or  composition,  zealously 
promoted  the  cultivation  of  ancient  literature ;  and, 
sensible  of  its  being  necessary  to  the  right  understand- 
ing of  the  Scriptures,  he  himself  had  acquired  con- 
siderable knowledge  both  in  the  Hebrew  and  Greek 
tongues.  Melancthon,  and  some  other  of  his  disci- 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEUOR,  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  409 

pies,  were  eminent  proficients  in  the  polite  arts ;  and, 
as  the  same  ignorant  monks  who  opposed  the  intro- 
duction of  learning  into  Germany  set  themselves  with 
equal  fierceness  against  Luther's  opinions,  and  declared 
the  good  reception  of  the  latter  to  be  the  effect  of  the 
progress  which  the  former  had  made,  the  cause  of 
learning  and  of  the  Reformation  came  to  be  considered 
as  closely  connected  with  each  other,  and,  in  every 
country,  had  the  same  friends  and  the  same  enemies. 
This  enabled  the  Reformers  to  carry  on  the  contest 
at  first  with  great  superiority.  Erudition,  industry, 
accuracy  of  sentiment,  purity  of  composition,  even  wit 
and  raillery,  were  almost  wholly  on  their  side,  and 
triumphed  with  ease  over  illiterate  monks,  whose  rude 
arguments,  expressed  in  a  perplexed  and  barbarous 
style,  were  found  insufficient  for  the  defence  of  a  sys- 
tem the  errors  of  which  all  the  art  and  ingenuity  of  its 
later  and  more  learned  advocates  have  not  been  able  to 
palliate. 

That  bold  spirit  of  inquiry,  which  the  revival  of 
learning  excited  in  Europe,  was  so  favourable  to  the 
Reformation  that  Luther  was  aided  in  his  progress,  and 
mankind  were  prepared  to  embrace  his  doctrines,  by 
persons  who  did  not  wish  success  to  his  undertaking. 
The  greater  part  of  the  ingenious  men  who  applied  to 
the  study  of  ancient  literature  towards  the  close  of  the 
fifteenth  century  and  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth, 
though  they  had  no  intention,  and  perhaps  no  wish, 
to  overturn  the  established  system  of  religion,  had 
discovered  the  absurdity  of  many  tenets  and  practices 
authorized  by  the  Church,  and  perceived  the  futility  of 
those  arguments  by  which  illiterate  monks  endeavoured 
to  defend  them.  Their  contempt  of  these  advocates  for 
the  received  errors  led  them  frequently  to  expose  the 
opinions  which  they  supported,  and  to  ridicule  their 
ignorance  with  great  freedom  and  severity.  By  this, 


410  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  IL 

men  were  prepared  for  the  more  serious  attacks  made 
upon  them  by  Luther  ;  and  their  reverence  both  for  the 
doctrines  and  persons  against  whom  he  inveighed  was 
considerably  abated.  This  was  particularly  the  case 
in  Germany.  When  the  first  attempts  were  made  to 
revive  a  taste  for  ancient  learning  in  that  country,  the 
ecclesiastics  there,  who  were  still  more  ignorant  than 
their  brethren  on  the  other  side  of  the  Alps,  set  them- 
selves to  oppose  its  progress  with  more  active  zeal ;  and 
the  patrons  of  the  new  studies,  in  return,  attacked  them 
with  greater  violence.  In  the  writings  of  Eeuchlin, 
Hutten,  and  the  other  revivers  of  learning  in  Germany, 
the  corruptions  of  the  Church  of  Rome  are  censured 
with  an  acrimony  of  style  little  inferior  to  that  of 
Luther  himself.46 

From  the  same  cause  proceeded  the  frequent  stric- 
tures of  Erasmus  upon  the  errors  of  the  Church,  as 
well  as  upon  the  ignorance  and  vices  of  the  clergy. 
His  reputation  and  authority  were  so  high  in  Europe 
at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  his 
works  were  read  with  such  universal  admiration,  that 
the  effect  of  these  deserves  to  be  mentioned  as  one 
of  the  circumstances  which  contributed  considerably 
towards  Luther's  success.  Erasmus,  having  been  de- 
stined for  the  Church  and  trained  up  in  the  knowledge 
of  ecclesiastical  literature,  applied  himself  more  to 
theological  inquiries  than  any  of  the  revivers  of  learn- 
ing in  that  age.  His  acute  judgment  and  extensive 
erudition  enabled  him  to  discover  many  errors  both  in 
the  doctrine  and  worship  of  the  Eomish  Church.  Some 
of  these  he  confuted  with  great  solidity  of  reasoning 
and  force  of  eloquence.  Others  he  treated  as  objects 
of  ridicule,  and  turned  against  them  that  irresistible 

4<i  Gerdesius,    Hist    Evang.    Re-      Hardt,  Hist  Literar.  Reform.,  para 
nov.,    vol.     i.     pp.     141,     157. —      ii. 
Seckend.,  lib.  i.  p.  103. — Von  der 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEEOE  OHABLES  THE  FIFTH.  411 

torrent  of  popular  and  satirical  wit  of  which  he  had 
the  command.  There  was  hardly  any  opinion  or  prac- 
tice of  the  Romish  Church  which  Luther  endeavoured 
to  reform,  but  what  had  been  previously  animadverted 
upon  by  Erasmus  and  had  afforded  him  subject  either  of 
censure  or  of  raillery.  Accordingly,  when  Luther  first 
began  his  attack  upon  the  Church,  Erasmus  seemed  to 
applaud  his  conduct ;  he  courted  the  friendship  of 
several  of  his  disciples  and  patrons,  and  condemned 
the  behaviour  and  spirit  of  his  adversaries.47  He  con- 
curred openly  with  him  in  inveighing  against  the 
school  divines,  as  the  teachers  of  a  system  equally 
unedifying  and  obscure.  He  joined  him  in  endeavour- 
ing to  turn  the  attention  of  men  to  the  study  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  as  the  only  standard  of  religious  truth.48 
Various  circumstances,  however,  prevented  Erasmus 
from  holding  the  same  course  with  Luther.  The  natural 
timidity  of  his  temper,  his  want  of  that  strength  of 
mind  which  alone  can  prompt  a  man  to  assume  the 
character  of  a  reformer,49  his  excessive  deference  for 
persons  in  high  stations,  his  dread  of  losing  the  pen- 
sions and  other  emoluments  which  their  liberality  had 
conferred  upon  him,  his  extreme  love  of  peace,  and 
hopes  of  reforming  abuses  gradually  and  by  gentle 
methods,  all  concurred  in  determining  him  not  only 
to  repress  and  to  moderate  the  zeal  with  which  he  had 
once  been  animated  against  the  errors  of  the  Church,50 


47  Seckend.,  lib.  i.  pp.  40,  96.  written   every   thing   in  the  most 

48  Von  der  Hardt,  Histor.  Literar.  unexceptionable  manner,  I  had  no 
Reform.,    pars    i. — Gerdes.,    Hist  inclination  to  die  for  the   sake  of 
Evang.  Renov.,  i.  147.  truth.      Every    man   hath    not  the 

49  Erasmus    himself    is     candid  courage  requisite  to  make  a  martyr ; 
enough  to  acknowledge  this.    "  Lu-  and  I  am  afraid  that,  if  I  were  put 
ther,"  says  he,  "  has  given  us  many  to    the  trial,  I   should  imitate  St. 
a  wholesome  doctrine,  and  many  a  Peter." — Epist.  Erasmi,  in  Jortin's 
good  counsel.      I  wish  he  had  not  Life  of  Erasmus,  vol.  i  p.  273. 
defeated  the  effect  of  them  by  in-  *"  Jortin's  Life  of  Erasmus,  voL  i 
tolerable  faiilts.       But   if  he   had  p.  258. 


412  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

but  to  assume  the  character  of  a  mediator  between 
Luther  and  his  opponents.  But  though  Erasmus  soon 
began  to  censure  Luther  as  too  daring  and  impetuous, 
and  was  at  last  prevailed  upon  to  write  against  him,  he 
must  nevertheless  be  considered  as  his  forerunner  and 
auxiliary  in  this  war  upon  the  Church.  He  first  scat- 
tered the  seeds  which  Luther  cherished  and  brought  to 
maturity.  His  raillery  and  oblique  censures  prepared 
the  way  for  Luther's  invectives  and  more  direct  attacks. 
In  this  light  Erasmus  appeared  to  the  zealous  defenders 
of  the  Eomish  Church  in  his  own  times.51  In  this  light 
he  must  be  considered  by  every  person  conversant  in  the 
history  of  that  period. 

In  this  long  enumeration  of  the  circumstances  which 
combined  in  favouring  the  progress  of  Luther's  opinions 
or  in  weakening  the  resistance  of  his  adversaries,  I  have 
avoided  entering  into  any  discussion  of  the  theological 
doctrines  of  popery,  and  have  not  attempted  to  show 
how  repugnant  they  are  to  the  spirit  of  Christianity, 
and  how  destitute  of  any  foundation  in  reason,  in  the 
word  of  God,  or  in  the  practice  of  the  primitive 
Church ;  leaving  those  topics  entirely  to  ecclesiastical 
historians,  to  whose  province  they  peculiarly  belong. 
But  when  we  add  the  effect  of  these  religious  considera- 
tions to  the  influence  of  political  causes,  it  is  obvious 
that  the  united  operation  of  both  on  the  human  mind 
must  have  been  sudden  and  irresistible.  Though,  to 
Luther's  contemporaries,  who  were  too  near,  perhaps, 
to  the  scene,  or  too  deeply  interested  in  it,  to  trace 
causes  with  accuracy  or  to  examine  them  with  coolness, 
the  rapidity  with  which  his  opinions  spread  appeared 
to  be  so  unaccountable  that  some  of  them  imputed  it 
to  a  certain  uncommon  and  malignant  position  of  the 
stars,  which  scattered  the  spirit  of  giddiness  and  inno- 

11  Von  der  Hardt,  Hist.  Literar.  Reform.,  pars  i  p.  2. 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEROR   CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  413 

vation  over  the  world,52  it  is  evident  that  the  success  of 
the  Eeformation  was  the  natural  effect  of  many  power- 
ful causes  prepared  by  peculiar  providence  and  happily 
conspiring  to  that  end.  This  attempt  to  investigate 
these  causes  and  to  throw  light  on  an  event  so  singular 
and  important  will  not,  perhaps,  be  deemed  an  unneces- 
sary digression.  I  return  from  it  to  the  course  of  the 
history. 

The  diet  of  Worms  conducted  its  deliberations  with 
that  slow  formality  peculiar  to  such  assemblies.  Much 
time  was  spent  in  establishing  some  regulations  with 
regard  to  the  internal  police  of  the  empire.  The 
jurisdiction  of  the  imperial  chamber  was  confirmed, 
and  the  forms  of  its  proceeding  rendered  more,  fixed 
and  regular.  A  council  of  regency  was  appointed  to 
assist  Ferdinand  in  the  government  of  the  empire 
during  any  occasional  absence  of  the  emperor;  which, 
from  the  extent  of  the  emperor's  dominions,  as  well  as 
the  multiplicity  of  his  affairs,  was  an  event  that  might 
be  frequently  expected.53  The  state  of  religion  was 
then  taken  into  consideration.  There  were  not  want- 
ing some  plausible  reasons  which  might  have  induced 
Charles  to  have  declared  himself  the  protector  of 
Luther's  cause,  or  at  least  to  have  connived  at  its  pro- 
gress. If  he  had  possessed  no  other  dominions  but 
those  which  belonged  to  him  in  Germany,  and  no 
other  crown  besides  the  imperial,  he  might  have  been 
disposed,  perhaps,  to  favour  a  man  who  asserted  so 
boldly  the  privileges  and  immunities  for  which  the 
empire  had  struggled  so  long  with  the  popes.  But  the 
vast  and  dangerous  schemes  which  Francis  I.  was  form- 
ing against  Charles  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  regu- 
late his  conduct  by  views  more  extensive  than  those 

62  Jovii  Historia,  Lut,  1553,  foL,      viii.  c.  11,  p.  195. — Pfeffd, 
p.  134.  Chronol.,  p.  598. 

*3  Pont.  Heuter.  Rer.  Austr.,  lib. 


REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  11. 

which  would  have  suited  a  German  prince ;  and,  it 
being  of  the  utmost  importance  to  secure  the  pope's 
friendship,  this  determined  him  to  treat  Luther  with 
great  severity,  as  the  most  effectual  method  of  soothing 
Leo  into  a  concurrence  with  his  measures.  His  eager- 
ness to  accomplish  this  rendered  him  not  unwilling  to 
gratify  the  papal  legates  in  Germany,  who  insisted  that, 
without  any  delay  or  formal  deliberation,  the  diet  ought 
to  condemn  a  man  whom  the  pope  had  already  excom- 
municated as  an  incorrigible  heretic.  Such  an  abrupt 
manner  of  proceeding,  however,  being  deemed  unprece- 
dented and  unjust  by  the  members  of  the  diet,  they 
made  a  point  of  Luther's  appearing  in  person  and  de- 
claring whether  he  adhered  or  not  to  those  opinions 
which  had  drawn  upon  him  the  censures  of  the  Church.54 
Not  only  the  emperor,  but  all  the  princes  through  whose 
territories  he  had  to  pass,  granted  him  a  safe-conduct ; 
and  Charles  wrote  to  him  at  the  same  time,  requiring 
his  immediate  attendance  on  the  diet,  and  renewing  his 
promises  of  protection  from  any  injury  or  violence.55 
Luther  did  not  hesitate  one  moment  about  yielding 
obedience,  and  set  out  for  Worms,  attended  by  the 
herald  who  had  brought  the  emperor's  letter  and  safe- 
conduct.  While  on  his  journey,  many  of  his  friends, 
whom  the  fate  of  Huss  under  similar  circumstances,  and 
notwithstanding  the  same  security  of  an  imperial  safe- 
conduct,  filled  with  solicitude,  advised  and  entreated  him 
not  to  rush  wantonly  into  the  midst  of  danger.  But 
Luther,  superior  to  such  terrors,  silenced  them  with  this 
reply:  "I  am  lawfully  called,"  said  he,  "to  appear  in 
that  city ;  and  thither  will  I  go  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord,  though  as  many  devils  as  there  are  tiles  on  the 
houses  were  there  combined  against  me."66 

The  reception  which   he   met  with  at   Worms  WF,S 

M  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  722.  M  Luth.,  Oper.,  ii  412. 

**  Luth.,  Oper.,  iL  411. 


feoox  ii. J  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  415 

such  as  he  might  have  reckoned  a  full  reward  of  all  his 
labours,  if  vanity  and  the  love  of  applause  had  been  the 
principles  by  which  he  was  influenced.  Greater  crowds 
assembled  to  behold  him  than  had  appeared  at  the  em- 
peror's public  entry ;  his  apartments  were  daily  filled 
with  princes  and  personages  of  the  highest  rank,57  and 
he  was  treated  with  all  the  respect  paid  to  those  who 
possess  the  power  of  directing  the  understanding  and 
sentiments  of  other  men, — a  homage  more  sincere,  as 
well  as  more  flattering,  than  any  which  pre-eminence  in 
birth  or  condition  can  command.  At  his  appearance 
before  the  diet  he  behaved  with  great  decency,  and  with 
equal  firmness.  He  readily  acknowledged  an  excess  of 
vehemence  and  acrimony  in  his  controversial  writings, 
but  refused  to  retract  his  opinions  unless  he  were  con- 
vinced of  their  falsehood,  or  to  consent  to  their  being 
tried  by  any  other  rule  than  the  word  of  God.  When 
neither  threats  nor  entreaties  could  prevail  on  him  to 
depart  from  this  resolution,  some  of  the  ecclesiastics 
proposed  to  imitate  the  example  of  the  council  of  Con- 
stance, and,  by  punishing  the  author  of  this  pestilent 
heresy,  who  was  now  in  their  power,  to  deliver  the 
Church  at  once  from  such  an  evil.  But,  the  members 
of  the  diet  refusing  to  expose  the  German  integrity  to 
fresh  reproach  by  a  second  violation  of  public  faith,  and 
Charles  being  no  less  unwilling  to  bring  a  stain  upon 
the  beginning  of  his  administration  by  such  an  igno- 
minious action,  Luther  was  permitted  to  depart  in 
safety.58  A  few  days  after  he  left  the  city,  a  severe 
edict  was  published,  in  the  emperor's  name  and  by 
authority  of  the  diet,  depriving  him,  as  an  obstinate  and 
excommunicated  criminal,  of  all  the  privileges  which  he 
enjoyed  as  a  subject  of  the  empire,  forbidding  any  prince 
to  harbour  or  protect  him,  and  requiring  all  to  concur  in 

57  Seckend.,  156. — Luth.,  Oper.,  58  F.  Paul,  Hist,  of  Counc.,  p.  13. 

ii  414.  — Seckend.,  160. 


416  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

seizing  his  person  as  soon  as  the  term  specified  in  his 
safe-conduct  was  expired.59 

But  this  rigorous  decree  had  no  considerable  effect; 
the  execution  of  it  being  prevented,  partly  by  the  multi- 
plicity of  occupations  which  the  commotions  in  Spain, 
together  with  the  wars  in  Italy  and  the  Low  Countries, 
created  to  the  emperor,  and  partly  by  a  prudent  pre- 
caution employed  by  the  elector  of  Saxony,  Luther's 
faithful  and  discerning  patron.  As  Luther,  on  his 
return  from  Worms,  was  passing  near  Altenstein  in 
Thuringia,  a  number  of  horsemen  in  masks  rushed  sud- 
denly out  of  a  wood,  where  the  elector  had  appointed 
them  to  lie  in  wait  for  him,  and,  surrounding  his  com- 
pany, carried  him,  after  dismissing  all  his  attendants,  to 
Wartburg,  a  strong  castle  not  far  distant.  There  the 
elector  ordered  him  to  be  supplied  with  everything 
necessary  or  agreeable ;  but  the  place  of  his  retreat  was 
carefully  concealed,  until  the  fury  of  the  present  storm 
against  him  began  to  abate,  upon  a  change  in  the  politi- 
cal situation  of  Europe,  in  this  solitude,  where  he 
remained  nine  months,  and  wnicti  he  frequently  called 
his  Patmos,  after  the  name  of  that  island  to  which  the 
Apostle  John  was  banished,  he  exerted  his  usual  vigoui 
and  industry  in  defence  of  his  doctrines  or  in  confutation 
of  his  adversaries,  publishing  several  treatises,  which 
revived  the  spirit  of  his  followers,  astonished  to  a  great 
degree,  and  disheartened,  at  the  sudden  disappearance  of 
their  leader. 

During  his  confinement  his  opinions  continued  to  gain 
ground,  acquiring  the  ascendant  in  almost  every  city  in 
Saxony.  At  this  time  the  Augustinians  of  Wittemberg, 
with  the  approbation  of  the  university  and  the  connivance 
of  the  elector,  ventured  upon  the  first  step  towards  an 
alteration  in  the  established  forms  of  public  worship,  by 
abolishing  the  celebration  of  private  masses,  and  by  giving 

M  Gold.,  Const.  Imperial.,  ii.  401. 


BOOK  ii. J  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  41? 

the  cup  as  well  as  the  bread  to  the  laity  in  administering 
the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper. 

Whatever  consolation  the  courage  and  success  of  his 
disciples,  or  the  progress  of  his  doctrines  in  his  own 
country,  afforded  Luther  in  his  retreat,  he  there  received 
information  of  two  events  which  considerably  damped 
his  joy,  as  they  seemed  to  lay  insuperable  obstacles  in 
the  way  of  propagating  his  principles  in  the  two  most 
powerful  kingdoms  of  Europe.  One  was  a  solemn  decree, 
condemning  his  opinions,  published  by  the  University  of 
Paris, — the  most  ancient,  and  at  that  time  the  most 
respectable,  of  the  learned  societies  in  Europe.  The 
other  was  the  answer  written  to  his  book  concerning  the 
Babylonish  captivity  by  Henry  VIII.  of  England.  That 
monarch,  having  been  educated  under  the  eye  of  a  sus- 
picious father,  who,  in  order  to  prevent  his  attending 
to  business,  kept  him  occupied  in  the  study  of  literature  j 
still  retained  a  greater  love  of  learning,  and  stronger 
habits  of  application  to  it,  than  are  common  among 
princes  of  so  active  a  disposition  and  such  violent  pas- 
sions. Being  ambitious  of  acquiring  glory  of  every  kind, 
as  well  as  zealously  attached  to  the  Komish  Church, 
and  highly  exasperated  against  Luther,  who  had  treated 
Thomas  Aquinas,  his  favourite  author,  with  great  con- 
tempt, Henry  did  not  think  it  enough  to  exert  his  royal 
authority  in  opposing  the  opinions  of  the  Reformer, 
but  resolved  likewise  to  combat  them  with  scholastic 
weapons.  With  this  view  he  published  his  treatise  on 
the  seven  sacraments;  which,  though  forgotten  at  present, 
as  books  of  controversy  always  are  when  the  occasion 
that  produced  them  is  past,  is  not  destitute  of  polemical 
ingenuity  and  acuteness,  and  was  represented  by  the 
flattery  of  his  courtiers  to  be  a  work  of  such  wonderful 
science  and  learning  as  exalted  him  no  less  above  other 
authors  in  merit  than  he  was  distinguished  among  them 
by  his  rank.  The  pope,  to  whom  it  was  presented  with 

VOL.    I.  «  B 


418  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  «• 

the  greatest  formality  in  full  consistory,  spoke  of  it  in 
such  terms  as  if  it  had  been  dictated  by  immediate 
inspiration,  and,  as  a  testimony  of  the  gratitude  of  the 
Church  for  his  extraordinary  zeal,  conferred  on  him  the 
title  of  Defender  of  the  Faith,  an  appellation  which  Henry 
soon  forfeited  in  the  opinion  of  those  from  whom  he 
derived  it,  and  which  is  still  retained  by  his  successors, 
though  the  avowed  enemy  of  those  opinions  by  contend- 
ing for  which  he  merited  that  honourable  distinction. 
Luther,  who  was  not  overawed  either  by  the  authority 
of  the  university  or  the  dignity  of  the  monarch,  soon 
published  his  animadversions  on  both,  in  a  style  no  less 
vehement  and  severe  than  he  would  have  used  in  con- 
futing his  meanest  antagonist.  This  indecent  boldness, 
instead  of  shocking  his  contemporaries,  was  considered 
by  them  as  a  new  proof  of  his  undaunted  spirit.  A 
controversy  managed  by  disputants  so  illustrious  drew 
universal  attention  ;  and  such  was  the  contagion  of  the 
spirit  of  innovation  diffused  through  Europe  in  that  age, 
and  so  powerful  the  evidence  which  accompanied  the 
doctrines  of  the  Reformers  on  their  first  publication, 
that,  in  spite  both  of  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  powers 
combined  against  them,  they  daily  gained  converts  both 
in  France  and  in  England. 

How  desirous  soever  the  emperor  might  be  to  put  a 
stop  to  Luther's  progress,  he  was  often  obliged,  during 
the  diet  at  Worms,  to  turn  his  thoughts  to  matters  still 
more  interesting  and  which  demanded  more  immediate 
attention.  A  war  was  ready  to  break  out  between  him 
and  the  French  king  in  Navarre,  in  the  Low  Countries, 
and  in  Italy ;  and  it  required  either  great  address  to 
avert  the  danger,  or  timely  and  wise  precautions  to 
resist  it.  Every  circumstance,  at  that  juncture,  inclined 
Charles  to  prefer  the  torrner  measure.  Spain  was  torn 
with  intestine  commotions.  In  Italy,  he  had  not  hitherto 
secured  the  assistance  of  any  one  ally.  In  the  Low 


BOOK  n.l  EMPEEOE  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  419 

Countries,  his  subjects  trembled  at  the  thoughts  of  a 
rupture  with  France,  the  fatal  effects  of  which  on  their 
commerce  they  had  often  experienced.  From  these  con- 
siderations, as  well  as  from  the  solicitude  of  Chievres, 
during  his  whole  administration,  to  maintain  peace  be- 
tween the  two  monarchs,  proceeded  the  emperor's  back- 
wardness to  commence  hostilities.  But  Francis  and  his 
ministers  did  not  breathe  the  same  pacific  spirit.  He 
easily  foresaw  that  concord  could  not  long  subsist  where 
interest,  emulation,  and  ambition  conspired  to  dissolve 
it ;  and  he  possessed  several  advantages  which  flattered 
him  with  the  hopes  of  surprising  his  rival,  and  of  over- 
powering him,  before  he  could  put  himself  in  a  posture 
of  defence.  The  French  king's  dominions,  from  their 
compact  situation,  from  their  subjection  to  the  royal 
authority,  from  the  genius  of  the  people,  fond  of  war, 
and  attached  to  their  sovereign  by  every  tie  of  duty  and 
affection,  were  more  capable  of  a  great  or  sudden  effort 
than  the  larger  but  disunited  territories  of  the  emperor, 
in  one  part  of  which  the  people  were  in  arms  against  his 
ministers,  and  in  all  his  prerogative  was  more  limited 
than  that  of  his  rival. 

The  only  princes  in  whose  power  it  was  to  have  kept 
down,  or  to  have  extinguished,  this  flame  on  its  first 
appearance,  either  neglected  to  exert  themselves  or  were 
active  in  kindling  and  spreading  it.  Henry  YIIL, 
though  he  affected  to  assume  the  name  of  mediator,  and 
both  parties  made  frequent  appeals  to  him,  had  laid  aside 
the  impartiality  which  suited  that  character.  Wolsey, 
by  his  artifices,  had  estranged  himself  so  entirely  from 
the  French  king  that  he  secretly  fomented  the  discord 
which  he  ought  to  have  composed,  and  waited  only  for 
some  decent  pretext  to  join  his  arms  to  those  of  the 
emperor.60 

Leo's  endeavours  to  excite  discord  between  the  em- 

80  Herbert.— Fiddes's  Life  of  Wolsey,  268. 

•  X  2 


420  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

peror  and  Francis  were  more  avowed,  and  had  greater 
influence.  Not  only  his  duty  as  the  common  father  of 
Christendom,  but  his  interest  as  an  Italian  potentate, 
called  upon  the  pope  to  act  as  the  guardian  of  the  public 
tranquillity,  and  to  avoid  any  measure  that  might  over- 
turn the  system  which,  after  much  bloodshed  and  many 
negotiations,  was  now  established  in  Italy.  Accordingly 
Leo,  who  instantly  discerned  the  propriety  of  this  con- 
duct, had  formed  a  scheme,  upon  Charles's  promotion  to 
the  imperial  dignity,  of  rendering  himself  the  umpire 
between  the  rivals,  by  soothing  them  alternately,  while 
he  entered  into  no  close  confederacy  with  either ;  and  a 
pontiff  less  ambitious  and  enterprising  might  have  saved 
Europe  from  many  calamities  by  adhering  to  this  plan. 
But  this  high-spirited  prelate,  who  was  still  in  the  prime 
of  life,  longed  passionately  to  distinguish  his  pontificate 
by  some  splendid  action.  He  was  impatient  to  wash 
away  the  infamy  of  having  lost  Parma  and  Placentia, 
the  acquisition  of  which  reflected  so  much  lustre  on  the 
administration  of  his  predecessor,  Julius.  He  beheld 
with  the  indignation  natural  to  Italians  in  that  age  the 
dominion  which  the  Transalpine,  or  as  they,  in  imita- 
tion of  the  Roman  arrogance,  denominated  them,  the 
barbarous  nations,  had  attained  in  Italy.  He  flattered 
himself  that  after  assisting  the  one  monarch  to  strip  the 
other  of  his  possessions  in  that  country  he  might  find 
means  of  driving  out  the  victor  in  his  turn,  and  acquire 
the  glory  of  restoring  Italy  to  the  liberty  and  happiness 
which  it  had  enjoyed  before  the  invasion  of  Charles  VIII., 
when  every  state  was  governed  by  its  native  princes  or 
its  own  laws,  and  unacquainted  with  a  foreign  yoke. 
Extravagant  and  chimerical  as  this  project  may  seem,  it 
was  the  favourite  object  of  almost  every  Italian  eminent 
for  genius  or  enterprise  during  great  part  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  They  vainly  hoped  that  by  superior  skill  in 
the  artifices  and  \  refinements  of  negotiation  they  should 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  42] 

be  able  to  baffle  the  efforts  of  nations  less  polished 
indeed  than  themselves,  but  much  more  powerful  and 
warlike.  So  alluring  was  the  prospect  of  this  to  Leo 
that,  notwithstanding  the  gentleness  of  his  disposition 
and  his  fondness  for  the  pleasures  of  a  refined  and  luxu- 
rious ease,  he  hastened  to  disturb  the  peace  of  Europe, 
and  to  plunge  himself  into  a  dangerous  war,  with  an 
impetuosity  scarcely  inferior  to  that  of  the  turbulent  and 
martial  Julius.61 

It  was  in  Leo's  power,  however,  to  choose  which  of 
the  monarchs  he  would  take  for  his  confederate  against 
the  other.  Both  of  them  courted  his  friendship ;  he 
wavered  for  some  time  between  them,  and  at  first  con- 
cluded an  alliance  with  Francis.  The  object  of  this 
treaty  was  the  conquest  of  Naples,  which  the  confede- 
rates agreed  to  divide  between  them.  The  pope,  it  is 
probable,  flattered  himself  that  the  brisk  and  active 
spirit  of  Francis,  seconded  by  the  same  qualities  in  his 
subjects,  would  get  the  start  of  the  slow  and  wary 
counsels  of  the  emperor,  and  that  they  might  overrun 
with  ease  this  detached  portion  of  his  dominions,  ill 
provided  for  defence  and  always  the  prey  of  every  in- 
vader. But  whether  the  French  king,  by  discovering 
too  openly  his  suspicion  of  Leo's  sincerity,  disappointed 
these  hopes ;  whether  the  treaty  was  only  an  artifice  of 
the  pope's  to  cover  the  more  serious  negotiations  which 
he  was  carrying  on  with  Charles  ;  whether  he  was  enticed 
by  the  prospect  of  reaping  great  advantages  from  a 
union  with  that  prince ;  or  whether  he  was  soothed  by 
the  zeal  which  Charles  had  manifested  for  the  honour  of 
the  Church  in  condemning  Luther, — certain  it  is  that 
he  soon  deserted  his  new  ally,  and  made  overtures  of 
friendship,  though  with  great  secrecy,  to  the  emperor.61 
Don  John  Manuel,  the  same  man  who  had  been  the 

61  Guic.,  lib.  xiv.  p.  173. 

M  Guic.,  lib.  xiv.  p.  175.— M^m.  de  Bellay,  Par.,  1573,  p.  24. 


422  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

favourite  of  Philip,  and  whose  address  had  disconcerted 
all  Ferdinand's  schemes,  having  been  delivered,  upon 
the  death  of  that  monarch,  from  the  prison  to  which  he 
had  been  confined,  was  now  the  imperial  ambassador 
at  Rome,  and  fully  capable  of  improving  this  favourable 
disposition  in  the  pope  to  his  master's  advantage.63  To 
him  the  conduct  of  this  negotiation  was  entirely  com- 
mitted; and  being  carefully  concealed  from  Chievres, 
whose  aversion  to  a  war  with  France  would  have 
prompted  him  to  retard  or  to  defeat  it,  an  alliance  be- 
tween the  pope  and  emperor  was  quickly  concluded.64 
The  chief  articles  in  this  treaty,  which  proved  the 
foundation  of  Charles's  grandeur  in  Italy,  were  that 
the  pope  and  emperor  should  join  their  forces  to  expel 
the  French  out  of  the  Milanese,  the  possession  of  which 
should  be  granted  to  Francis  Sforza,  a  son  of  Ludovico 
the  Moor,  who  had  resided  at  Trent  since  the  time  that 
his  brother  Maximilian  had  been  dispossessed  of  his 
dominions  by  the  French  king ;  that  Parma  and  Placentia 
should  be  restored  to  the  Church ;  that  the  emperoi 
should  assist  the  pope  in  conquering  Ferrara ;  that  the 
annual  tribute  paid  by  the  kingdom  of  Naples  to  the 
holy  see  should  be  increased ;  that  the  emperor  should 
take  the  family  of  Medici  under  his  protection ;  that  he 
should  grant  to  the  cardinal  of  that  name  a  pension  of 
ten  thousand  ducats  upon  the  archbishopric  of  Toledo, 
and  should  settle  lands  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  to  the 
same  value,  upon  Alexander,  the  natural  son  of  Lorenzo 
de'  Medici. 

The  transacting  an  affair  of  such  moment  without  his 
participation  appeared  to  Chievres  so  decisive  a  proof 
of  his  having  lost  the  ascendant  which  he  had  hitherto 
maintained  over  the  mind  of  his  pupil,  that  his  chagrin 
on  this  account,  added  to  the  melancholy  with  which 

tt  Jovii  Vita  Leonis,  lib.  iv.  p.  89.      de  Bellay,  p.  24. — Du  Mont,  Corps 
**  Guic.,    lib.   xiv.    181. — M&B.      Diplom.,  torn,  iv.,  suppl.,  p.  96. 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  423 

he  was  overwhelmed  on  taking  a  view  of  the  many  and 
unavoidable  calamities  attending  a  war  against  France, 
is  said  to  have  shortened  his  days.65  But  though  this, 
perhaps,  may  be  only  the  conjecture  of  historians,  fond 
of  attributing  every  thing  that  befalls  illustrious  person- 
ages to  extraordinary  causes,  and  of  ascribing  even  their 
diseases  and  death  to  the  effect  of  political  passions, 
which  are  more  apt  to  disturb  the  enjoyment  than  to 
abridge  the  period  of  life,  it  is  certain  that  his  death, 
it  this  critical  juncture,  extinguished  all  hopes  of  avoid- 
ing a  rupture  with  France.66  This  event,  too,  delivered 
Charles  from  a  minister  to  whose  authority  he  had  been 
accustomed  from  his  infancy  to  submit  with  such  im- 
plicit deference  as  checked  and  depressed  his  genius 
and  retained  him  in  a  state  of  pupilage  unbecoming  Ms 
years  as  well  as  his  rank.  But  this  restraint  being  re- 
moved, the  native  powers  of  his  mind  were  permitted 
to  unfold  themselves,  and  he  began  to  display  such 
great  talents,  both  in  council  and  in  action,  as  exceeded 
the  hopes  of  his  contemporaries,67  and  command  the 
admiration  of  posterity. 

While  the  pope  and  emperor  were  preparing,  in  con- 
sequence of  this  secret  alliance,  to  attack  Milan,  hos- 
tilities commenced  in  another  quarter.  The  children 
of  John  d'Albret,  king  of  Navarre,  having  often  de- 
manded the  restitution  of  their  hereditary  dominions, 
in  terms  of  the  treaty  of  Noyon,  and  Charles  having 
as  often  eluded  their  requests  upon  very  frivolous  pre- 
texts, Francis  thought  himself  authorized  by  that  treaty 
to  assist  the  exiled  family.  The  juncture  appeared 
extremely  favourable  for  such  an  enterprise.  Charles 
was  at  a  distance  from  that  part  of  his  dominions ;  the 
troops  usually  stationed  there  had  been  called  away  to 

65  Belcarii    Comment,    de    Reb.      yiiL  c.  11,  p.  197. 
Gallic.,  483.  "  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  73ft. 

K  P.   Heuter.    Rer.    Austr.,   lib. 


424  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 


quell  tJie  commotions  in  Spain  ;  the  Spanish  malecon- 
tents  warmly  solicited  him  to  invade  Navarre,68  in  which 
a  considerable  faction  was  ready  to  declare  for  the  de- 
scendants of  their  ancient  monarchs.  But,  in  order  to 
avoid  as  much  as  possible  giving  offence  to  the  emperor, 
or  king  of  England,  Francis  directed  forces  to  be  levied, 
and  the  war  to  be  carried  on,  not  in  his  own  name, 
but  in  that  of  Henry  d'Albret.  The  conduct  of  these 
troops  was  committed  to  Andrew  de  Foix,  de  1'Esparre, 
a  young  nobleman,  whom  his  near  alliance  to  the  un- 
fortunate king  whose  battles  he  was  to  fight,  and,  what 
was  still  more  powerful,  the  interest  of  his  sister, 
Madame  de  Chateaubriand,  Francis's  favourite  mistress, 
recommended  to  that  important  trust,  for  which  he  had 
neither  talents  nor  experience.  But,  as  there  was  no 
army  in  the  field  to  oppose  mm,  he  became  master,  in 
a  few  days,  of  the  whole  kingdom  of  Navarre,  without 
meeting  with  any  obstruction  but  from  the  citadel  of 
Pampeluna.  The  additional  works  of  this  fortress, 
begun  by  Ximenes,  were  still  unfinished  ;  nor  would  its 
slight  resistance  have  deserved  notice,  if  Ignatio  Loyola, 
a  Biscayan  gentleman,  had  not  been  dangerously 
wounded  in  its  defence.  During  the  progress  of  a 
lingering  cure,  Loyola  happened  to  have  no  other  amuse- 
ment than  what  he  found  in  reading  the  lives  of  the 
saints  :  the  effect  of  this  on  his  mind,  'naturally  enthu- 
siastic, but  ambitious  and  daring,  was  to  inspire  him 
with  such  a  desire  of  emulating  the  glory  of  these  fabu- 
lous worthies  of  the  Roman  Church  as  led  him  into  the 
wildest  and  most  extravagant  adventures,  which  termi- 
nated at  last  in  instituting  the  society  of  Jesuits,  the 
most  political  and  best  regulated  of  all  the  monastic 
orders,  and  from  which  mankind  have  derived  more 
advantages  and  received  greater  injury  than  from  any 
other  of  those  religious  fraternities. 

6S  P.  Martyr,  Ep.,  721. 


BOOK  IT.]  EMPKKOK  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  425 

If,  upon  the  reduction  of  Pampeluna,  L'Esparre  had 
been  satisfied  with  taking  proper  precautions  for  secur- 
ing his  conquest,  the  kingdom  of  Navarre  might  still 
have  remained  annexed  to  the  crown  of  France  in  reality 
as  well  as  in  title.  But,  pushed  on  by  youthful  ardour, 
and  encouraged  by  Francis,  who  was  too  apt  to  be 
dazzled  with  success,  he  ventured  to  pass  the  confines 
of  Navarre,  and  to  lay  siege  to  Logrogno,  a  small  town 
in  Castile.  This  roused  the  Castilians,  who  had  hitherto 
beheld  the  rapid  progress  of  his  arms  with  great  uncon- 
cern, and,  the  dissensions  in  that  kingdom  (of  which 
a  full  account  shall  be  given)  being  almost  composed, 
both  parties  exerted  themselves  with  emulation  in  de- 
fence of  their  country :  the  one,  that  it  might  efface  the 
memory  of  past  misconduct  by  its  present  zeal ;  the 
other,  that  it  might  add  to  the  merit  of  having  subdued 
the  emperor's  rebellious  subjects  that  of  repulsing  his 
foreign  enemies.  The  sudden  advance  of  their  troops, 
together  with  the  gallant  defence  made  by  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Logrogno,  obliged  the  French  general  to  aban- 
don his  rash  enterprise.  The  Spanish  army,  which 
increased  every  day,  harassing  him  during  his  retreat, 
he,  instead  of  taking  shelter  under  the  cannon  of  Pam- 
peluna, or  waiting  the  arrival  of  some  troops  which  were 
marching  to  join  him,  attacked  the  Spaniards,  though 
far  superior  to  him  in  number,  with  great  impetuosity, 
but  with  so  little  conduct  that  his  forces  were  totally 
routed,  he  himself,  together  with  his  principal  officers, 
was  taken  prisoner,  and  Spain  recovered  possession 
of  Navarre  in  still  shorter  time  than  the  French  had 
spent  in  the  conquest  of  it.69 

While  Francis  endeavoured  to  justify  his  invasion 
of  Navarre  by  carrying  it  on  in  the  name  of  Henry 
d'Albret,  he  had  recourse  to  an  artifice  much  of  the 
same  kind  in  attacking  another  part  of  the  emperor's 

•»  M&n.  de  Bellay,  p.  21. — P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  726. 


426  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

territories.  Bobert  de  la  Mark,  lord  of  the  small  but 
independent  territory  of  Bouillon,  situated  on  the 
frontiers  of  Luxembourg  and  Champagne,  having  aban- 
doned Charles's  service  on  account  of  an  encroachment 
which  the  Aulic  Council  had  made  on  his  jurisdiction, 
and  having  thrown  himself  upon  France  for  protection, 
was  easily  persuaded,  in  the  heat  of  his  resentment,  to 
send  a  herald  to  Worms  and  to  declare  war  against  the 
emperor  in  form.  Such  extravagant  insolence  in  a 
petty  prince  surprised  Charles,  and  appeared  to  him 
a  certain  proof  of  his  having  received  promises  of 
powerful  support  from  the  French  king.  The  justness 
of  this  conclusion  soon  became  evident.  Eobert  entered 
the  duchy  of  Luxembourg  with  troops  levied  in  France, 
by  the  king's  connivance,  though  seemingly  in  contra- 
diction to  his  orders,  and,  after  ravaging  the  open 
country,  laid  siege  to  Yireton.  Of  this  Charles  com- 
plained loudly,  as  a  direct  violation  of  the  peace  subsist- 
ing between  the  two  crowns,  and  summoned  Henry  YIIL, 
in  terms  of  the  treaty  concluded  at  London  in  the  year 
1518,  to  turn  his  arms  against  Francis  as  the  first 
aggressor.  Francis  pretended  that  he  was  not  answer- 
able for  Eobert' s  conduct,  whose  army  fought  under  his 
own  standards  and  in  his  own  quarrel,  and  affirmed 
that,  contrary  to  an  express  prohibition,  he  had  seduced 
some  subjects  of  France  into  his  service ;  but  Henry 
paid  so  little  regard  to  this  evasion  that  the  French 
king,  rather  than  irritate  a  prince  whom  he  still  hoped 
to  gain,  commanded  De  la  Mark  to  disband  his  troops.70 
The  emperor,  meanwhile,  was  assembling  an  army  to 
chastise  Eobert's  insolence.  Twenty  thousand  men, 
under  the  count  of  Nassau,  invaded  his  little  territories, 
and  in  a  few  days  became  masters  of  every  place  in  them 
but  Sedan.  After  making  him  feel  so  sensibly  the 
weight  of  his  master's  indignation,  Nassau  advanced 

70  M&n.  de  Bellay,  p.  22,  etc, — Me'm.  de  Fleuranges,  p.  335,  etc. 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEKOR  OHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  427 

towards  the  frontiers  of  France ;  and  Charles,  knowing 
that  he  might  presume  so  far  on  Henry's  partiality  in 
his  favour  as  not  to  be  overawed  by  the  same  fears  which 
had  restrained  Francis,  ordered  his  general  to  besiege 
Mouson.  The  cowardice  of  the  garrison  having  obliged 
the  governor  to  surrender  almost  without  resistance, 
Nassau  invested  Mdzieres,  a  place  at  that  time  of  no 
considerable  strength,  but  so  advantageously  situated 
that  by  getting  possession  of  it  the  imperial  army  might 
have  penetrated  into  the  heart  of  Champagne,  in  which 
there  was  hardly  any  other  town  capable  of  obstructing 
its  progress.  Happily  for  France,  its  monarch,  sensible 
of  the  importance  of  this  fortress  and  of  the  danger  to 
which  it  was  exposed,  committed  the  defence  of  it  to 
the  Chevalier  Bayard,  distinguished  among  his  contem- 
poraries by  the  appellation  of  The  knight  without  fear 
and  without  reproach.11  This  man,  whose  prowess  in 
combat,  whose  punctilious  honour  and  formal  gallantry, 
bear  a  nearer  resemblance  than  anything  recorded  in 
history  to  the  character  ascribed  to  the  heroes  of  chivalry, 
possessed  all  the  talents  which  form  a  great  general. 
These  he  had  many  occasions  of  exerting  in  the  defence 
of  Me'zieres.  Partly  by  his  valour,  partly  by  his  con- 
duct, he  protracted  the  siege  to  a  great  length,  and 
in  the  end  obliged  the  imperialists  to  raise  it,  with 
disgrace  and  loss.72  Francis,  at  the  head  of  a  numerous 
army,  soon  retook  Mouson,  and,  entering  the  Low  Coun- 
tries, made  several  conquests  of  small  importance.  In 
the  neighbourhood  of  Valenciennes,  through  an  excess 
of  caution,  an  error  with  which  he  cannot  be  often 
charged,  he  lost  an  opportunity  of  cutting  off  the  whole 
imperial  army;73  and,  what  was  still  more  unfortunate, 
he  disgusted  Charles,  duke  of  Bourbon,  high  constable 

71  (Euvres  de  Brantome,  torn,  vt          w  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  747. — Me'm. 
114.  de  Bellay,  35. 

72  Mem.  de  Bellay,  p.  25,  etc. 


428  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

of  France,  by  giving  the  command  of  the  van  to  the 
duke  d'Alencon,  though  this  post  of  honour  belonged  to 
Bourbon,  as  a  prerogative  of  his  office. 

During  these  operations  in  the  field,  a  congress  was 
held  at  Calais,  under  the  mediation  of  Henry  VIII.,  in 
order  to  bring  all  differences  to  an  amicable  issue ;  and 
if  the  intention  of  the  mediator  had  corresponded  in 
any  degree  to  his  professions,  it  could  hardly  have  failed 
of  producing  some  good  effect.  But  Henry  committed 
the  sole  management  of  the  negotiation,  with  unlimited 
powers,  to  Wolsey  ;  and  this  choice  alone  was  sufficient 
to  have  rendered  it  abortive.  That  prelate,  bent  on 
attaining  the  papal  crown,  the  great  object  of  his 
ambition,  and  ready  to  sacrifice  every  thing  in  order 
to  gain  the  emperor's  interest,  was  so  little  able  to 
conceal  his  partiality  that  if  Francis  had  not  been  well 
acquainted  with  his  haughty  and  vindictive  temper  he 
would  have  declined  his  mediation.  Much  time  was 
spent  in  inquiring  who  had  begun  hostilities,  which 
Wolsey  affected  to  represent  as  the  principal  point ; 
and  by  throwing  the  blame  of  that  on  Francis  he  hoped 
to  justify  by  the  treaty  of  London  any  alliance  into 
which  his  master  should  enter  with  Charles.  The  con- 
ditions on  which  hostilities  might  be  terminated  came 
next  to  be  considered;  but  with  regard  to  these  the 
emperor's  proposals  were  such  as  discovered  either  that 
he  was  utterly  averse  to  peace,  or  that  he  knew  Wolsey 
would  approve  of  whatever  terms  should  be  offered  in 
his  name.  He  demanded  the  restitution  of  the  duchy 
of  Burgundy,  a  province  the  possession  of  which  would 
have  given  him  access  into  the  heart  of  France,  and 
required  to  be  released  from  the  homage  due  to  the 
crown  of  France  for  the  counties  of  Flanders  and 
Artois,  which  none  of  his  ancestors  had  ever  refused, 
and  which  he  had  bound  himself  by  the  treaty  of 
Noyon  to  renew.  These  terms,  to  which  a  high-spirited 


BOOK  n.]  EMPEEOE  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  429 

prince  would  scarcely  have  listened,  after  the  disasters 
of  an  unfortunate  war,  Francis  rejected  with  great  dis- 
dain; and  Charles  showing  no  inclination  to  comply 
with  the  more  equal  and  moderate  propositions  of  the 
French  monarch,  that  he  should  restore  Navarre  to  its 
lawful  prince  and  withdraw  his  troops  from  the  siege 
of  Tournay,  the  congress  broke  up  without  any  other 
effect  than  that  which  attends  unsuccessful  negotia- 
tions,— the  exasperating  of  the  parties  whom  it  was 
intended  to  reconcile.74 

During  the  continuance  of  the  congress,  Wolsey,  on 
pretence  that  the  emperor  himself  would  be  more  will- 
ing to  make  reasonable  concessions  than  his  ministers, 
made  an  excursion  to  Bruges  to  meet  that  monarch. 
He  was  received  by  Charles,  who  knew  his  vanity,  with 
as  much  respect  and  magnificence  as  if  he  had  been 
king  of  England.  But,  instead  of  advancing  the  treaty 
of  peace  by  this  interview,  Wolsey,  in  his  master's  name, 
concluded  a  league  with  the  emperor  against  Francis ; 
in  which  it  was  stipulated  that  Charles  should  invade 
France  on  the  side  of  Spain,  and  Henry  in  Picardy, 
each  with  an  army  of  forty  thousand  men,  and  that, 
in  order  to  strengthen  their  union,  Charles  should 
espouse  the  princess  Mary,  Henry's  only  child,  and  the 
apparent  heir  of  his  dominions.75  Henry  produced 
no  better  reasons  for  this  measure,  equally  unjust  and 
impolitic,  than  the  article  in  the ,  treaty  of  London  by 
which  he  pretended  that  he  was  bound  to  take  arms 
against  the  French  king  as  the  first  aggressor,  and  the 
injury  which  he  alleged  Francis  had  done  him  in  per- 
mitting the  duke  of  Albany,  the  head  of  a  faction  in 
Scotland  which  opposed  the  interest  of  England,  to 
return  into  that  kingdom.  He  was  influenced,  how- 
ever, by  other  considerations.  The  advantages  which 

74  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  739. — Her-  7*  Rymer,  Feeder.,  adii. — Herbert, 
bert. 


430  REIGN  OF  THE  (BOOK  n. 

accrued  to  his  subjects  from  maintaining  an  exact 
neutrality,  or  the  honour  that  resulted  to  himself  from 
acting  as  the  arbiter  between  the  contending  princes, 
appeared  to  his  youthful  imagination  so  inconsiderable, 
when  compared  with  the  glory  which  might  be  reaped 
from  leading  armies  or  conquering  provinces,  that  he 
determined  to  remain  no  longer  in  a  state  of  inactivity. 
Having  once  taken  this  resolution,  his  inducements  to 
prefer  an  alliance  with  Charles  were  obvious.  He  had 
no  claim  upon  any  part  of  that  prince's  dominions, 
most  of  which  were  so  situated  that  he  could  not  attack 
them  without  great  difficulty  and  disadvantage ;  whereas 
several  maritime  provinces  of  France  had  been  long  in 
the  hands  of  the  English  monarchs,  whose  pretensions 
even  to  the  crown  of  that  kingdom  were  not  as  yet 
altogether  forgotten;  and  the  possession  of  Calais  not 
only  gave  him  easy  access  into  some  of  those  provinces, 
but,  in  case  of  any  disaster,  afforded  him  a  secure  re- 
treat. While  Charles  attacked  France  on  one  frontier, 
Henry  flattered  himself  that  he  should  find  little  resist- 
ance on  the  other,  and  that  the  glory  of  re-annexing 
to  the  crown  of  England  the  ancient  inheritance  of  its 
monarchs  on  the  Continent  was  reserved  for  his  reign. 
Wolsey  artfully  encouraged  these  vain  hopes,  which  led 
his  master  into  such  measures  as  were  most  subservient 
to  his  own  secret  schemes ;  and  the  English,  whose 
hereditary  animosity  against  the  French  was  apt  to 
rekindle  on  every  occasion,  did  not  disapprove  of  the 
martial  spirit  of  their  sovereign. 

Meanwhile,  the  league  between  the  pope  and  the 
emperor  produced  great  effects  in  Italy,  and  rendered 
Lombardy  the  chief  theatre  of  war.  There  was  at  that 
time  such  contrariety  between  the  character  of  the 
French  and  the  Italians  that  the  latter  submitted  to 
the  government  of  the  former  with  greater  impatience 
than  they  expressed  under  the  dominion  of  other 


BOOK  n.]  EUPEROK  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  431 

foreigners.  The  phlegm  of  the  Germans  and  gravity 
of  the  Spaniards  suited  their  jealous  temper  and  cere- 
monious manners  better  than  the  French  gaiety,  too 
prone  to  gallantry  and  too  little  attentive  to  decorum. 
Louis  XII.,  however,  by  the  equity  and  gentleness  of 
his  administration,  and  by  granting  the  Milanese  more 
extensive  privileges  than  those  they  had  enjoyed  under 
their  native  princes,  had  overcome  in  a  great  measure 
their  prejudices  and  reconciled  them  to  the  French 
government.  Francis,  on  recovering  that  duchy,  did 
not  imitate  the  example  of  his  predecessor.  Though 
too  generous  himself  to  oppress  his  people,  his  bound- 
less confidence  in  his  favourites,  and  his  negligence  in 
examining  into  the  conduct  of  those  whom  he  intrusted 
with  power,  emboldened  them  to  venture  upon  any 
acts  of  oppression.  The  government  of  Milan  was 
committed  by  him  to  Odet  de  Foix,  Mare'chal  de 
Lantrec,  another  brother  of  Madame  de  Chateaubriand, 
an  officer  of  great  experience  and  reputation,  but 
haughty,  imperious,  and  rapacious,  and  incapable  either 
of  listening  to  advice  or  of  bearing  contradiction.  His 
insolence  and  exactions  totally  alienated  the  affections 
of  the  Milanese  from  France,  drove  many  of  the  con- 
siderable citizens  into  banishment,  and  forced  others 
to  retire  for  their  own  safety.  Among  the  last  was 
Jerome  Morone,  vice-chancellor  of  Milan,  a  man  whose 
genius  for  intrigue  and  enterprise  distinguished  him  in 
an  age  and  country  where  violent  factions,  as  well  as 
frequent  revolutions,  affording  great  scope  for  such 
talents,  produced  or  called  them  forth  in  great  abun- 
dance. He  repaired  to  Francis  Sforza,  whose  brother 
Maximilian  he  had  betrayed ;  and  suspecting  the  pope's 
intention  of  attacking  the  Milanese,  although  his  treaty 
with  the  emperor  was  not  yet  made  public,  he  proposed 
to  Leo,  in  the  name  of  Sforza,  a  scheme  for  surprising 
several  places  in  that  duchy  by  means  of  the  exiles, 


432  EEIGN  OF  THE  (.BOOK  n. 

who,  from  hatred  to  the  French,  and  from  attachment 
to  their  former  masters,  were  ready  for  any  desperate 
enterprise.  Leo  not  only  encouraged  the  attempt,  but 
advanced  a  considerable  sum  towards  the  execution  of 
it ;  and  when,  through  unforeseen  accidents,  it  failed 
of  success  in  every  part,  he  allowed  the  exiles,  who  had 
assembled  in  a  body,  to  retire  to  Eeggio,  which  belonged 
at  that  time  to  the  Church.  The  Mare'chal  de  Foix, 
who  commanded  at  Milan  in  the  absence  of  his  brother 
Lautrec,  who  was  then  in  France,  tempted  with  the 
hopes  of  catching  at  once,  as  in  a  snare,  all  the  avowed 
enemies  of  his  master's  government  in  that  country, 
ventured  to  march  into  the  ecclesiastical  territories  and 
to  invest  Eeggio.  But  tiie  vigilance  and  good  conduct 
of  Guicciardini,  the  historian,  governor  of  that  place, 
obliged  the  French  general  to  abandon  the  enterprise 
with  disgrace.76  Leo,  on  receiving  this  intelligence, 
with  which  he  was  highly  pleased,  as  it  furnished  him 
a  decent  pretence  for  a  rupture  with  France,  immediately 
assembled  the  consistory  of  cardinals.  After  complain- 
ing bitterly  of  the  hostile  intentions  of  the  French  king, 
and  magnifying  the  emperor's  zeal  for  the  Church,  of 
which  he  had  given  a  recent  proof  by  his  proceedings 
against  Luther,  he  declared  that  he  was  constrained, 
in  self-defence,  and  as  the  only  expedient  for  the  security 
of  the  ecclesiastical  state,  to  join  his  arms  to  those  of 
that  prince.  For  this  purpose,  he  now  pretended  to 
conclude  a  treaty  with  Don  John  Manuel,  although  it 
had  really  been  signed  some  months  before  this  time ; 
and  he  publicly  excommunicated  De  Foix,  as  an  impious 
invader  of  St.  Peter's  patrimony. 

Leo  had  already  begun  preparations  for  war  by  taking 
into  pay  a  considerable  body  of  Swiss ;  but  the  imperial 
troops  advanced  so  slowly  from  Naples  and  Germany 
that  it  was  the  middle  of  autumn  before  the  army  took 

76  Guic.,  lib.  xiv.  183. — Me"m.  de  Bellay,  p.  38,  etc. 


BOOK  n.]  EMPEEOE  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  433 

the  field,  under  the  command  of  Prosper  Colonna,  the 
most  eminent  of  the  Italian  generals,  whose  extreme 
caution,  the  effect  of  long  experience  in  the  art  of  war, 
was  opposed  with  great  propriety  to  the  impetuosity  of 
the  French..  In  the  meantime,  De  Foix  despatched 
courier  after  courier  to  inform  the  king  of  the  danger 
which  was  approaching.  Francis,  whose  forces  were 
either  employed  in  the  Low  Countries  or  assembling 
on  the  frontiers  of  Spain,  and  who  did  not  expect  so 
sudden  an  attack  in  that  quarter,  sent  ambassadors  to 
his  allies  the  Swiss,  to  procure  from  them  the  immediate 
levy  of  an  additional  body  of  troops,  and  commanded 
Lautrec  to  repair  forthwith  to  his  government.  That 
general,  who  was  well  acquainted  with  the  great  neglect 
of  economy  in  the  administration  of  the  king's  finances, 
and  who  knew  how  much  the  troops  in  the  Milanese 
had  already  suffered  from  the  want  of  their  pay,  refused 
to  set  out  unless  the  sum  of  three  hundred  thousand 
crowns  was  immediately  put  into  his  hands.  But  the 
king,  Louise  of  Savoy,  his  mother,  Semblancy,  the  super- 
intendent of  finances,  having  promised,  even  with  an 
oath,  that  on  his  arrival  at  Milan  he  should  find  remit- 
tances for  the  sum  which  he  demanded,  upon  the  faith 
of  this  he  departed.  Unhappily  for  France,  Louise, 
a  woman  deceitful,  vindictive,  rapacious,  and  capable 
of  sacrificing  anything  to  the  gratification  of  her  pas- 
sions, but  who  had  acquired  an  absolute  ascendant  over 
her  son  by  her  maternal  tenderness,  her  care  of  his 
education,  and  her  great  abilities,  was  resolved  not  to 
perform  this  promise.  Lautrec  having  incurred  her 
displeasure  by  his  haughtiness  in  neglecting  to  pay 
court  to  her,  and  by  the  freedom  with  which  he  had 
talked  concerning  some  of  her  adventures  in  gallantry, 
she,  in  order  to  deprive  him  of  the  honour  which  he 
might  have  gained  by  a  successful  defence  of  the 
Milanese,  seized  the  three  hundred  thousand  crowns 

VOL.  1.  *  f 


434  REIGN  OP  THE  [BOOK  n. 

destined  for   that   service   and    detained   them  for  her 
own  use. 

Lautrec,  notwithstanding  this  cruel  disappointment, 
found  means  to  assemble  a  considerable  army,  though 
far  inferior  in  number  to  that  of  the  confederates.  He 
adopted  the  plan  of  defence  most  suitable  to  his  situa- 
tion, avoiding  a  pitched  battle  with  the  greatest  care, 
while  he  harassed  the  enemy  continually  with  his  light 
troops,  beat  up  their  quarters,  intercepted  their  con- 
voys, and  covered  or  relieved  every  place  which  they 
attempted  to  attack.  By  this  prudent  conduct  he  not 
only  retarded  their  progress,  but  would  have  soon 
wearied  out  the  pope,  who  had  hitherto  defrayed 
almost  the  whole  expense  of  the  war,  as  the  emperor, 
whose  revenues  in  Spain  were  dissipated  during  the 
commotions  in  that  country,  and  who  was  obliged  to 
support  a  numerous  army  in  the  Netherlands,  could  not 
make  any  considerable  remittances  into  Italy.  But  an 
unforeseen  accident  disconcerted  all  his  measures  and 
occasioned  a  fatal  reverse  in  the  French  affairs.  A 
body  of  twelve  thousand  Swiss  served  in  Lautrec's 
army  under  the  banners  of  the  republic,  with  which 
France  was  in  alliance.  In  consequence  of  a  law  no 
less  political  than  humane,  established  among  the  can- 
tons, their  troops  were  never  hired  out  by  public 
authority  to  both  the  contending  parties  in  any  war. 
This  law,  however,  the  love  of  gain  had  sometimes 
eluded,  and  private  persons  had  been  allowed  to  enlist 
in  what  service  they  pleased,  though  not  under  the 
public  banners,  but  under  those  of  their  particular 
officers.  The  cardinal  of  Sion,  who  still  preserved 
his  interest  among  his  countrymen  and  his  enmity  to 
France,  having  prevailed  on  them  to  connive  at  a  levy 
of  this  kind,  twelve  thousand  Swiss,  instigated  by  him, 
joined  the  army  of  the  confederates.  But  the  leaders 
in  the  cantons,  when  they  saw  so  many  of  their  country- 


HOOK  II.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  435 

men  marching  under  the  hostile  standards  and  ready  to 
turn  their  arms  against  each  other,  became  so  sensible  of 
the  infamy  to  which  they  would  be  exposed  by  per- 
mitting this,  as  well  as  the  loss  they  might  suffer,  that 
they  despatched  couriers  commanding  their  people  to 
leave  both  armies  and  to  return  forthwith  into  their 
own  country.  The  cardinal  of  Sion,  however,  had  the 
address,  by  corrupting  the  messengers  appointed  to 
carry  this  order,  to  prevent  it  from  being  delivered  to 
the  Swiss  in  the  service  of  the  confederates ;  but,  being 
intimated  in  due  form  to  those  in  the  French  army,  they, 
fatigued  with  the  length  of  the  campaign,  and  murmur- 
ing for  want  of  pay,  instantly  yielded  obedience,  in 
spite  of  Lautrec's  remonstrances  and  entreaties. 

After  the  desertion  of  a  body  which  formed  the 
strength  of  his  army,  Lautrec  durst  no  longer  face  the 
confederates.  He  retired  towards  Milan,  encamped  on 
the  banks  of  the  Adda,  and  placed  his  chief  hopes  of 
safety  in  preventing  the  enemy  from  passing  that  river ; 
an  expedient  for  defending  a  country  so  precarious  that 
there  are  few  instances  of  its  being  employed  with 
success  against  any  general  of  experience  or  abilities. 
Accordingly,  Colonna,  notwithstanding  Lautrec's  vigi- 
lance and  activity,  passed  the  Adda  with  little  loss,  and 
obliged  him  to  shut  himself  up  within  the  walls  of 
Milan,  which  the  confederates  were  preparing  to  besiege, 
when  an  unknown  person,  who  never  afterwards  ap- 
peared either  to  boast  of  this  service  or  to  claim  a 
reward  for  it,  came  from  the  city,  and  acquainted 
Morone  that  if  the  army  would  advance  that  night  the 
Ghibelline  or  imperial  faction  would  put  them  in  posses- 
sion of  one  of  the  gates.  Colonna,  though  no  friend  to 
rash  enterprises,  allowed  the  marquis  de  Pescara  to 
advance  with  the  Spanish  infantry,  and  he  himself 
followed  with  the  rest  of  his  troops.  About  the  be- 
ginning of  night,  Pescara,  arriving  at  the  Eoman  gate 

F  F   2 


436  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

in  the  suburbs,  surprised  the  soldiers  wr.om  he  found 
there.  Those  posted  in  the  fortifications  adjoining  to  it 
immediately  fled ;  the  marquis,  seizing  the  works  which 
they  abandoned,  and  pushing  forward  incessantly,  though 
with  no  less  caution  than  vigour,  became  master  of  the 
city  with  little  bloodshed,  and  almost  without  resistance, 
the  victors  being  as  much  astonished  as  the  vanquished 
at  the  facility  and  success  of  the  attempt.  Lautrec 
retired  precipitately  towards  the  Venetian  territories 
with  the  remains  of  his  shattered  army;  the  cities  of 
the  Milanese,  following  the  fate  of  the  capital  surren- 
dered to  the  confederates;  Parma  and  Placentia  were 
united  to  the  ecclesiastical  state ;  and,  of  all  their  con- 
quests in  Lombardy,  only  the  town  of  Cremona,  the 
castle  of  Milan,  and  a  few  inconsiderable  forts,  remained 
in  the  hands  of  the  French.77 

Leo  received  the  accounts  of  this  rapid  succession  of 
prosperous  events  with  such  transports  of  joy  as  brought 
on  (if  we  may  believe  the  French  historians)  a  slight 
fever,  which,  being  neglected,  occasioned  his  death  on 
the  2nd  of  December,  while  he  was  still  of  a  vigorous 
age  and  at  the  height  of  his  glory.  By  this  unexpected 
accident  the  spirit  of  the  confederacy  was  broken  and 
its  operation  suspended.  The  cardinals  of  Sion  and 
Medici  left  the  army,  that  they  might  be  present  in  the 
conclave ;  the  Swiss  were  recalled  by  their  superiors ; 
some  other  mercenaries  disbanded  for  want  of  pay ;  and 
only  the  Spaniards,  and  a  few  Germans  in  the  emperor's 
service,  remained  to  defend  the  Milanese.  But  Lautrec, 
destitute  both  of  men  and  of  money,  was  unable  to 
improve  this  favourable  opportunity  in  the  manner  which 
he  would  have  wished.  The  vigilance  of  Morone,  and 
the  good  conduct  of  Colonna,  disappointed  his  feeble 

77  Guic.,    lib.    xiv.    190,  etc. —      — Fran.     Sfortise     Comment.,    ap. 
Me"m.  de  Bellay,  42,  etc. — Galeacii      Scordium,  voL  ii  180,  etc. 
Capella  de  Reb.  gest.  pro  restitut. 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEROE  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  437 

attempts  on  the  Milanese.  Guicciardini,  by  his  address 
and  valour,  repulsed  a  bolder  and  more  dangerous  attack 
which  he  made  on  Parma.78 

Great  discord  prevailed  in  the  conclave  which  followed 
upon  Leo's  death,  and  all  the  arts  natural  to  men  grown 
old  in  intrigue,  when  contending  for  the  highest  prize 
an  ecclesiastic  can  obtain,  were  practised.  Wolsey's 
name,  notwithstanding  .all  the  emperor's  magnificent 
promises  to  favour  his  pretensions,  of  which  that  prelate 
did  not  fail  to  remind  him,  was  hardly  mentioned  in  the 
conclave.  Julio,  Cardinal  de  Medici,  Leo's  nephew, 
who  was  more  eminent  than  any  other  member  of  the 
college  for  his  abilities,  his  wealth,  and  his  experience 
in  transacting  great  affairs,  had  already  secured  fifteen 
voices,  a  number  sufficient,  according  to  the  forms  of 
the  conclave,  to  exclude  any  other  candidate,  though  not 
to  carry  his  own  election.  As  he  was  still  in  the  prime 
of  life,  all  the  aged  cardinals  combined  against  him, 
without  being  united  in  favour  of  any  other  person. 
While  these  factions  were  endeavouring  to  gain,  to 
corrupt,  or  to  weary  out  each  other,  Medici  and  his 
adherents  voted  one  morning  at  the  scrutiny,  which, 
according  to  the  form,  was  made  every  day,  for  Cardinal 
Adrian  of  Utrecht,  who  at  that  time  governed  Spain  in 
the  emperor's  name.  This  they  did  merely  to  protract 
time.  But,  the  adverse  party  instantly  closing  with 
them,  to  their  amazement  and  that  of  all  Europe,  a 
stranger  to  Italy,  unknown  to  the  persons  who  gave 
their  suffrages  in  his  favour,  and  unacquainted  with  the 
manners  of  the  people  or  the  interest  of  the  state  the 
government  of  which  they  conferred  upon  him,  was 
unanimously  raised  to  the  papal  throne  at  a  juncture  so 
delicate  and  critical  as  would  have  demanded  all  the 
sagacity  and  experience  of  one  of  the  most  able  prelates 
in  the  sacred  college.  The  cardinals  themselves,  unable 

78  Guic.,  lib.  xiv.  214. 


EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  IL 

to  give  a  reason  for  this  strange  choice,  on  account  of 
which,  as  they  marched  in  procession  from  the  conclave, 
they  were  loaded  with  insults  and  curses  by  the  Eoman 
people,  ascribed  it  to  an  immediate  impulse  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  It  may  be  imputed  with  greater  certainty  to 
the  influence  of  Don  John  Manuel,  the  imperial  ambas- 
sador, who  by  his  address  and  intrigues  facilitated  the 
election  of  a  person  devoted  to  his  master's  service  from 
gratitude,  from  interest,  and  from  inclination.79 

Besides  the  influence  which  Charles  acquired  by 
Adrian's  promotion,  it  threw  great  lustre  on  his  ad 
ministration.  To  bestow  on  his  preceptor  such  a  noble 
recompense,  and  to  place  on  the  papal  throne  one  whom 
he  had  raised  from  obscurity,  were  acts  of  uncommon 
magnificence  and  power.  Francis  observed,  with  the 
sensibility  of  a  rival,  the  pre-eminence  which  the  em- 
peror was  gaining,  and  resolved  to  exert  himself  with 
fresh  vigour,  in  order  to  wrest  from  him  his  late  con- 
quests in  Italy.  The  Swiss,  that  they  might  make  some 
reparation  to  the  French  king  for  having  withdrawn 
their  troops  from  his  army  so  unseasonably  as  to  occasion 
the  loss  of  the  Milanese,  permitted  him  to  levy  ten 
thousand  men  in  the  republic.  Together  with  this  rein- 
forcement, Lautrec  received  from  the  king  a  small  sum 
of  money,  which  enabled  him  once  more  to  take  the 
field,  and,  after  seizing  by  surprise  or  force  several  places 
in  the  Milanese,  to  advance  within  a  few  miles  of  the 
capital.  The  confederate  army  was  in  no  condition  to 
obstruct  his  progress;  for  though  the  inhabitants  of 
Milan,  by  the  artifices  of  Morone,  and  by  the  popular 
declamations  of  a  monk  whom  he  employed,  were  in- 
flamed with  such  enthusiastic  zeal  against  the  French 
government  that  they  consented  to  raise  extraordinary 
contributions,  Colonna  must  soon  have  abandoned  the 

79  Herm.  Moringi  Vita  Hadriani,      Hadr.,    p.    52. — Conclav.     Hadr., 
ap.  Gasp.  Burman.  in  Analect.  de      ibid.,  p.  144,  etc. 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  439 

advantageous  camp  which  he  had  chosen  at  Biocca,  and 
have  dismissed  his  troops  for  want  of  pay,  if  the  Swiss 
in  the  French  service  had  not  once  more  extricated  him 
out  of  his  difficulties. 

The  insolence  and  caprice  of  those  mercenaries  were 
often  no  less  fatal  to  their  friends  than  their  valour  and 
discipline  were  formidable  to  their  enemies.  Having 
now  served  some  months  without  pay,  of  which  they 
complained  loudly,  a  sum  destined  for  their  use  was 
sent  from  France  under  a  convoy  of  horse ;  but  Morone, 
whose  vigilant  eye  nothing  escaped,  posted  a  body  of 
troops  in  their  way,  so  that  the  party  which  escorted 
the  money  durst  not  advance.  On  receiving  intelli- 
gence of  this,  the  Swiss  lost  all  patience,  and  officers, 
as  well  as  soldiers,  crowding  around  Lautrec,  threatened 
with  one  voice  instantly  to  retire,  if  he  did  not  either 
advance  the  pay  which  was  due,  or  promise  to  lead  them 
next  morning  to  battle.  In  vain  did  Lautrec  remon- 
strate against  these  demands,  representing  to  them  the 
impossibility  of  the  former  and  the  rashness  of  the 
latter,  which  must  be  attended  with  certain  destruction, 
as  the  enemy  occupied  a  camp  naturally  of  great  strength, 
and  which  by  art  they  had  rendered  almost  inaccessible. 
The  Swiss,  deaf  to  reason,  and  persuaded  that  their 
valour  was  capable  of  surmounting  every  obstacle,  re- 
newed their  demand  with  great  fierceness,  offering  them- 
selves to  form  the  vanguard  and  to  begin  the  attack. 
Lautrec,  unable  to  overcome  their  obstinacy,  complied 
with  their  request,  hoping,  perhaps,  that  some  of  those 
unforeseen  accidents  which  so  often  determine  the  fate 
of  battles  might  crown  this  rash  enterprise  with  un- 
deserved success,  and  convinced  that  the  effects  of  a 
defeat  could  not  be  more  fatal  than  those  which  would 
certainly  follow  upon  the  retreat  of  a  body  which  com- 
posed one-half  of  his  army.  Next  morning  the  Swiss 
were  early  in  the  field,  and  ;  arched  with  the  greatest 


440  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  11. 

intrepidity  against  an  enemy  deeply  intrenched  on  every 
side,  surrounded  with  artillery,  and  prepared  to  receive 
them.  As  they  advanced,  they  sustained  a  furious 
cannonade  with  great  firmness,  and  without  waiting  for 
their  own  artillery,  rushed  impetuously  upon  the  in- 
trenchments.  But,  after  incredible  efforts  of  valour, 
which  were  seconded  with  great  spirit  by  the  French, 
having  lost  their  bravest  officers  and  best  soldiers,  and 
finding  that  they  could  make  no  impression  on  the 
enemy's  works,  they  sounded  a  retreat;  leaving  the 
field  of  battle,  however,  like  men  repulsed  but  not  van- 
quished, in  close  array,  and  without  receiving  any 
molestation  from  the  enemy. 

Next  day,  such  as  survived  set  out  for  their  own 
country ;  and  Lautrec,  despairing  of  being  able  to  make 
any  further  resistance,  retired  into  France,  after  throw- 
ing garrisons  into  Cremona  and  a  few  other  places ;  all 
of  which,  except  the  citadel  of  Cremona,  Colonna  soon 
obliged  to  surrender. 

Genoa,  however,  and  its  territories,  remaining  sub- 
ject to  France,  still  gave  Francis  considerable  footing  in 
Italy,  and  made  it  easy  for  him  to  execute  any  scheme 
for  the  recovery  of  the  Milanese.  But  Colonna,  ren- 
dered enterprising  by  continual  success,  and  excited  by 
the  solicitations  of  the  faction  of  the  Adorni,  the  here- 
ditary enemies  of  the  Fregosi,  who,  under  the  protection 
of  France,  possessed  the  chief  authority  in  Genoa,  deter- 
mined to  attempt  the  reduction  of  that  state,  and  accom- 
plished it  with  amazing  facility.  He  became  master  of 
Genoa  by  an  accident  as  unexpected  as  that  which  had 
given  him  possession  of  Milan;  and,  almost  without 
opposition  or  bloodshed,  the  power  of  the  Adorni  and  the 
authority  of  the  Emperor  were  established  in  Genoa.80 

Such  a  cruel  succession  of  misfortunes  affected  Francis 
with  deep  concern,  which  was  not  a  little  augmented 

80  Jovit  Vita  Ferdin.  Davali,  p.  344. — Guic.,  lib.  xiv.  233. 


BOOK  n.]  EMPEEOR  CHARLES  THE  FIETH.  441 

by  the  unexpected  arrival  of  an  English  herald,  who,  in 
the  name  of  his  sovereign,  declared  war  in  form  against 
France.  This  step  was  taken  in  consequence  of  the 
treaty  which  Wolsey  had  concluded  with  the  emperor 
at  Bruges,  and  which  had  hitherto  been  kept  secret. 
Francis,  though  he  had  reason  to  be  surprised  with 
this  denunciation,  after  having  been  at  such  pains  to 
soothe  Henry  and  to  gain  his  minister,  received  the 
herald  with  great  composure  and  dignity,81  and,  without 
abandoning  any  of  the  schemes  which  he  was  forming 
against  the  emperor,  began  vigorous  preparations  for 
resisting  this  new  enemy.  His  treasury,  however, 
being  exhausted  by  the  efforts  which  he  had  already 
made,  as  well  as  by  the  sums  he  expended  on  his  plea- 
sures, he  had  recourse  to  extraordinary  expedients  for 
supplying  it.  Several  new  offices  were  created  and 
exposed  to  sale ;  the  royal  demesnes  were  alienated ; 
unusual  taxes  were  imposed ;  and  the  tomb  of  St. 
Martin  was  stripped  of  a  rail  of  massive  silver  with 
which  Louis  XI.,  in  one  of  his  fits  of  devotion,  had  en- 
circled it.  By  means  of  these  expedients  he  was 
enabled  to  levy  a  considerable  army,  and  to  put  the 
frontier  towns  in  a  good  posture  of  defence. 

The  emperor,  meanwhile,  was  no  less  solicitous  to 
draw  as  much  advantage  as  possible  from  the  accession 
of  such  a  powerful  ally ;  and  the  prosperous  situation 
of  his  affairs  at  this  time  permitting  him  to  set  out  for 
Spain,  where  his  presence  was  extremely  necessary,  he 
visited  the  court  of  England  on  his  way  to  that  country. 
He  proposed  by  this  interview  not  only  to  strengthen 
the  bonds  of  friendship  which  united  him  with  Henry, 
and  to  excite  him  to  push  the  war  against  France  with 
vigour,  but  hoped  to  remove  any  disgust  or  resentment 
that  Wolsey  might  have  conceived  on  account  of  the 
mortifying  disappointment  which  he  had  met  with  in 

H1  Journal  de  Louise  de  Savoie,  p.  119. 


442  REIGN  OP  THE  [BOOK  n. 

the  late  conclave.  His  success  exceeded  his  most  san- 
guine expectations ;  and  by  his  artful  address,  during 
a  residence  of  six  weeks  in  England,  he  gained  not 
only  the  king  and  the  minister,  but  the  nation  itself. 
Henry,  whose  vanity  was  sensibly  flattered  by  such  a 
visit,  as  well  as  by  the  studied  respect  with  which  the 
emperor  treated  him  on  every  occasion,  entered  warmly 
into  all  his  schemes.  The  cardinal,  foreseeing,  from 
Adrian's  age  and  infirmities,  a  sudden  vacancy  in  the 
papal  see,  dissembled  or  forgot  his  resentment ;  and  as 
Charles,  besides  augmenting  the  pensions  which  he  had 
already  settled  on  him,  renewed  his  promise  of  favour- 
ing his  pretensions  to  the  papacy  with  all  his  interest, 
he  endeavoured  to  merit  the  former,  and  to  secure  the 
accomplishment  of  the  latter,  by  fresh  services.  The 
nation,  sharing  in  the  glory  of  its  monarch,  and  pleased 
with  the  confidence  which  the  emperor  placed  in  the 
English,  by  creating  the  earl  of  Surrey  his  high-admiral, 
discovered  no  less  inclination  to  commence  hostilities 
than  Henry  himself. 

In  order  to  give  Charles,  before  he  left  England,  a 
proof  of  this  general  ardour,  Surrey  sailed  with  such 
forces  as  were  ready,  and  ravaged  the  coasts  of  Nor- 
mandy. He  then  made  a  descent  on  Bretagne,  where 
he  plundered  and  burnt  Morlaix,  and  some  other  places 
of  less  consequence.  After  these  slight  excursions, 
attended  with  greater  dishonour  than  damage  to  France, 
he  repaired  to  Calais,  and  took  the  command  of  the 
principal  army,  consisting  of  sixteen  thousand  men; 
with  which,  having  joined  the  Flemish  troops  under  the 
Count  de  Buren,  he  advanced  into  Picardy.  The  army 
which  Francis  had  assembled  was  far  inferior  in  number 
to  these  united  bodies;  but  during  the  long  wars  be- 
tween the  two  nations  the  French  had  discovered  the 
proper  method  of  defending  their  country  against  the 
English.  They  had  been  taught  by  their  misfortunes 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  443 

to  avoid  a  pitched  battle  with  the  utmost  care,  and  to 
endeavour,  by  throwing  garrisons  into  every  place 
capable  of  resistance,  by  watching  all  the  enemy's 
motions,  by  intercepting  their  convoys,  attacking  their 
advanced  posts,  and  harassing  them  continually  with 
their  numerous  cavalry,  to  ruin  them  with  the  length 
of  war,  or  to  beat  them  by  piecemeal.  This  plan  the 
duke  of  Yendome,  the  French  general  in  Picardy, 
pursued  with  no  less  prudence  than  success,  and  not 
only  prevented  Surrey  from  taking  any  town  of  import- 
ance, but  obliged  him  to  retire  with  his  army,  greatly 
reduced  by  fatigue,  by  want  of  provisions,  and  by  the 
loss  which  it  had  sustained  in  several  unsuccessful 
skirmishes. 

Thus  ended  the  second  campaign,  in  a  war  the  most 
general  that  had  hitherto  been  kindled  in  Europe ;  and 
though  Francis,  by  his  mother's  ill-timed  resentment, 
by  the  disgusting  insolence  of  his  general,  and  the 
caprice  of  the  mercenary  troops  which  he  employed,  had 
lost  his  conquests  in  Italy,  yet  all  the  powers  combined 
against  him  had  not  been  able  to  make  any  impression 
on  his  hereditary  dominions ;  and  wherever  they  either- 
intended  or  attempted  an  attack,  he  was  well  prepared 
to  receive  them. 

While  the  Christian  princes  were  thus  wasting  each 
other's  strength,  Solyman  the  Magnificent  entered  Hun- 
gary with  a  numerous  army,  and,  investing  Belgrade, 
which  was  deemed  the  chief  barrier  of  that  kingdom 
against  the  Turkish  arms,  soon  forced  it  to  surrender. 
Encouraged  by  this  success,  he  turned  his  victorious 
arms  against  the  island  of  Rhodes,  the  seat,  at  that 
time,  of  the  knights  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem.  This 
small  state  he  attacked  with  such  a  numerous  army  as 
the  lords  of  Asia  have  been  accustomed,  in  every  age, 
to  bring  into  the  field.  Two  hundred  thousand  men, 
and  a  fleet  of  four  hundred  sail,  appeared  against  a 


444  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  n. 

town  defended  by  a  garrison  consisting  of  five  thousand 
soldiers  and  six  hundred  knights,  under  the  command 
of  Villiers  de  L'Isle  Adam,  the  grand  master,  whose 
wisdom  and  valour  rendered  him  worthy  of  that  station 
at  such  a  dangerous  juncture.  No  sooner  did  he  begin 
to  suspect  the  destination  of  Solyman's  vast  armaments, 
than  he  despatched  messengers  to  all  the  Christian 
courts,  imploring  their  aid  against  the  common  enemy. 
But  though  every  prince .  in  that  age  acknowledged 
Ehodes  to  be  the  great  bulwark  of  Christendom  in  the 
East,  and  trusted  to  the  gallantry  of  its  knights  as  the 
best  security  against  the  progress  of  the  Ottoman  arms, 
— though  Adrian,  with  a  zeal  which  became  the  head 
and  father  of  the  Church,  exhorted  the  contending 
powers  to  forget  their  private  quarrels,  and,  by  uniting 
their  arms,  to  prevent  the  infidels  from  destroying  a 
society  which  did  honour  to  the  Christian  name, — yet 
so  violent  and  implacable  was  the  animosity  of  both 
parties  that,  regardless  of  the  danger  to  which  they 
exposed  all  Europe,  and  unmoved  by  the  entreaties  of 
the  grand  master  or  the  admonitions  of  the  pope,  they 
suffered  Solyman  to  carry  on  his  operations  against 
Ehodes  without  disturbance.  The  grand  master,  after 
incredible  efforts  of  courage,  of  patience,  and  of  mili- 
tary conduct,  during  a  siege  of  six  months, — after 
sustaining  many  assaults,  and  disputing  every  post  with 
amazing  obstinacy, — was  obliged  at  last  to  yield  to 
numbers;  and,  having  obtained  an  honourable  capitu- 
lation from  the  sultan,  who  admired  and  respected  his 
virtue,  he  surrendered  the  town,  which  was  reduced  to 
a  heap  of  rubbish  and  destitute  of  every  resource.82 
Charles  and  Francis,  ashamed  of  having  occasioned  such 
a  loss  to  Christendom  by  their  ambitious  contests, 
endeavoured  to  throw  the  blame  of  it  on  each  other, 

85  Fontanus  de  Bello  Rhodio,  ap.      p.   88. — P.   Barre,    Hist. 
Scard.  Script.  Rer.  German.,  voL  ii.       torn.  viii.  57. 


BOOK  ii.]  EMPEEOE  CHABLES  THE  FIFTH.  445 

while  all  Europe,  with  greater  justice,  imputed  it  equally 
to  both.  The  emperor,  by  way  of  reparation,  granted 
the  knights  of  St.  John  the  small  island  of  Malta,  in 
which  they  fixed  their  residence,  retaining,  though  with 
less  power  and  splendour,  their  ancient  spirit,  and  im- 
placable enmity  to  the  infidel? 


BOOK  III. 


Imrarrections. — Attempts  of  the  Regent,  Adrian,  to  suppress  them. — Con 
federacy  in  Castile  against  him. — Measures  taken  by  the  Emperor.— 
Remonstrance  of  the  Junta. — They  take  up  Arms. — Their  Negotia 
tions  with  the  Nobles. — The  Junta  under  Padilla  defeated  in  Battle. 
— Defence  of  Toledo  by  his  Widow. — The  War  in  Valencia  and  in 
Majorca. — Generosity  of  the  Emperor. — Reception  of  Adrian  at 
Rome. — His  pacific  Policy. — A  new  League  against  France. — 
Treachery  of  the  Duke  of  Bourbon. — Francis  attacks  Milan. — Death 
of  Adrian,  and  Election  of  Clement  VII. — Disappointment  of 
Wolsey. — Progress  of  the  War  with  France. — Pope  Clement  unable 
to  bring  about  Peace. — The  French  abandon  the  Milanese. — Death 
of  Bayard. — The  Reformation  in  Germany. — Luther  translates  the 
Bible. — The  Diet  at  Nuremberg  proposes  a  General  Council — The 
Diet  presents  a  List  of  Grievances  to  the  Pope. — Opinion  at  Rome 
concerning  the  Policy  of  Adrian. — Clement's  Measures  against  Luther. 

CHARLES,  having  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  hos- 
tilities begun  between  France  and  England,  took  leave 
of  Henry,  and  arrived  in  Spain  on  the  17th  of  June, 
1522.  He  found  that  country  just  beginning  to  recover 
order  and  strength  after  the  miseries  of  a  civil  war,  to 
which  it  had  been  exposed  during  his  absence ;  an  ac- 
count of  the  rise  and  progress  of  which,  as  it  was  but 
little  connected  with  the  other  events  which  happened 
in  Europe,  hath  been  reserved  to  (Ms  place. 

No  sooner  was  it  known  that  the  cortes  assembled  in 
Galicia  had  voted  the  Emperor  a  free  gift,  without 
obtaining  the  redress  of  any  one  grievance,  than  it 
excited  universal  indignation.  The  citizens  of  Toledo, 
who  considered  themselves,  on  account  of  the  great  pri* 
vileges  which  they  enjoyed,  as  guardians  of  the  liberties 
of  the  Castilian  commons,  finding  that  no  regard  was 


BOOK  in.]    REIGN  OP  THE  EMPEROK  CHAELES  V.  447 

paid  to  the  remonstrances  of  their  deputies  against  that 
unconstitutional  grant,  took  arms  with  tumultuary 
violence,  and,  seizing  the  gates  of  the  city,  which  were 
fortified,  attacked  the  alcazar  or  castle,  which  they  soon 
obliged  the  governor  to  surrender.  Emboldened  by  this 
success,  they  deprived  of  all  authority  every  person 
whom  they  suspected  of  any  attachment  to  the  court, 
established  a  popular  form  of  government,  composed  of 
deputies  from  the  several  parishes  in  the  city,  and  levied 
troops  in  their  own  defence.  The  chief  leader  of  the 
people  in  these  insurrections  was  Don  John  de  Padilla, 
the  eldest  son  of  the  commendator  of  Castile,  a  youLg 
nobleman  of  a  generous  temper,  of  undaunted  courage, 
and  possessed  of  the  talents,  as  well  as  of  the  ambition, 
which,  in  limes  of  civil  discord,  raise  men  to  power  and 
eminence.1  [1520.] 

The  resentment  of  the  citizens  of  Segovia  produced 
effects  still  more  fatal.  Tordesillas,  one  of  their  repre- 
sentatives in  the  late  cortes,  had  voted  for  the  donative, 
and,  being  a  bold  and  haughty  man,  ventured,  upon  his 
return,  to  call  together  his  fellow-citizens  in  the  great 
church,  that  he  might  give  them,  according  to  custom, 
an  account  of  his  conduct  in  the  assembly.  But  the 
multitude,  unable  to  bear  his  insolence  in  attempting  to 
justify  what  they  thought  inexcusable,  burst  open  the 
gates  of  the  church  with  the  utmost  fury,  and,  seizing 
the  unhappy  Tordesillas,  dragged  him  through  the 
streets,  with  a  thousand  curses  and  insults,  towards  the 
place  of  public  execution.  In  vain  did  the  dean  and 
canons  come  forth  in  procession  with  the  holy  sacrament 
in  order  to  appease  their  rage.  In  vain  did  the  monks 
of  those  monasteries  by  which  they  passed  conjure  them 
on  their  knees  to  spare  his  life,  or  at  least  to  allow  him 
time  to  confess,  and  to  receive  absolution  of  his  sins. 
Without  listening  to  the  dictates  either  of  humanity  or 
1  Sandoval,  p.  77. 


KEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  in. 

religion,  they  cried  out,  "  That  the  hangman  alone  could 
absolve  such  a  traitor  to  his  country;"  they  then  hurried 
him  along  with  greater  violence;  and,  perceiving  that 
he  had  expired  under  their  hands,  they  hung  him  up 
with  his  head  downwards  on  the  common  gibbet.2  The 
same  spirit  seized  the  inhabitants  of  Burgos,  Zamora, 
and  several  other  cities;  and  though  their  represen- 
tatives, taking  warning  from  the  fate  of  Tordesillas,  had 
been  so  wise  as  to  save  themselves  by  a  timely  night, 
they  were  burnt  in  effigy,  their  houses  razed  to  the 
ground,  and  their  effects  consumed  with  fire ;  and  such 
was  the  horror  which  the  people  had  conceived  against 
them,  as  betrayers  of  the  public  liberty,  that  not  one  in 
those  licentious  multitudes  would  touch  anything,  how- 
ever valuable,  which  had  belonged  to  them.8 

Adrian,  at  that  time  regent  of  Spain,  had  scarcely 
fixed  the  seat  of  his  government  at  Yalladolid  when  he 
was  alarmed  with  an  account  of  these  insurrections.  He 
immediately  assembled  the  privy  council  to  deliberate 
concerning  the  proper  method  of  suppressing  them.  The 
councillors  differed  in  opinion,  some  insisting  that  it  was 
necessary  to  check  this  audacious  spirit  in  its  infancy  by 
a  severe  execution  of  justice,  others  advising  to  treat 
with  lenity  a  people  who  had  some  reason  to  be  incensed, 
and  not  to  drive  them  beyond  all  the  bounds  of  duty  by 
an  ill-timed  rigour.  The  sentiments  of  the  former,  being 
warmly  supported  by  the  archbishop  of  Granada,  pre 
sident  of  the  council,  a  person  of  great  authority,  but 
choleric  and  impetuous,  were  approved  by  Adrian,  whose 
zeal  to  support  his  master's  authority  hurried  him  into  a 
measure  to  which,  from  his  natural  caution  and  timidity, 
he  would  otherwise  have  been  averse.  He  commanded 
Eonquillo,  one  of  the  king's  judges,  to  repair  instantly 
to  Segovia,  which  had  set  the  first  example  of  mutiny, 
and  to  proceed  against  the  delinquents  according  to  law ; 

*  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  671.          *  Sandoval,  103.— P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  674. 


BOOK  m.j          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  449 

and,  lest  the  people  should  be  so  outrageous  as  to  resist 
his  authority,  a  considerable  body  of  troops  was  appointed 
to  attend  him.  The  Segovians,  foreseeing  what  they 
might  expect  from  a  judge  so  well  known  for  his  austere 
and  unforgiving  temper,  took  arms  with  one  consent, 
and,  having  mustered  twelve  thousand  men,  shut  their 
gates  against  him.  Eonquillo,  enraged  at  this  insult, 
denounced  them  rebels  and  outlaws,  and,  his  troops 
seizing  all  the  avenues  to  the  town,  hoped  that  it  would 
soon  be  obliged  to  surrender  for  want  of  provisions. 
The  inhabitants,  however,  defended  themselves  with 
vigour,  and,  having  received  a  considerable  reinforce- 
ment from  Toledo,  under  the  command  of  Padilla, 
attacked  Eonquillo,  and  forced  him  to  retire  with  the 
loss  of  his  baggage  and  military  chest.4  [1522.] 

Upon  this,  Adrian  ordered  Antonio  de  Fonseca,  whom 
the  emperor  had  appointed  commander-in-chief  of  the 
forces  in  Castile,  to  assemble  an  army  and  to  besiege 
Segovia  in  form.  But  the  inhabitants  of  Medina  del 
Campo,  where  Cardinal  Ximenes  had  established  a  vast 
magazine  of  military  stores,  would  not  suffer  him  to 
draw  from  it  a  train  of  battering  cannon,  or  to  destroy 
their  countrymen  with  those  arms  which  had  been  pre- 
pared against  the  enemies  of  the  kingdom.  Fonseca, 
who  could  not  execute  his  orders  without  artillery, 
determined  to  seize  the  magazine  by  force;  and,  the 
citizens  standing  on  their  defence,  he  assaulted  the  town 
with  great  briskness ;  but  his  troops  were  so  warmly 
received  that,  despairing  of  carrying  the  place,  he  set 
fire  to  some  of  the  houses,  in  hopes  that  the  citizens 
would  abandon  the  walls  in  order  to  save  their  families 
and  effects.  Instead  of  that,  the  expedient  to  which  he 
had  recourse  served  only  to  increase  their  fury,  and  he 
was  repulsed  with  great  disgrace;  while  the  flames, 
spreading  from  street  to  street,  reduced  to  ashes  almost 

4  Sandoval,  112. — P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  679. — Miniana,  Contin.,  p.  16. 

VOL.  I.  «  • 


450  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  ra. 

the  whole  town,  one  of  the  most  considerable  at  that 
time  in  Spain,  and  the  great  mart  for  the  manufactures 
of  Segovia  and  several  other  cities.  As  the  warehouses 
were  then  filled  with  goods  for  the  approaching  fair,  the 
loss  was  immense,  and  was  felt  universally.  This,  added 
to  the  impression  which  such  a  cruel  action  made  on  a 
people  long  unaccustomed  to  the  horrors  of  civil  war, 
enraged  the  Castilians  almost  to  madness.  Fonseca 
became  the  object  of  general  hatred,  and  was  branded 
with  the  name  of  incendiary,  and  enemy  to  his  country. 
Even  the  citizens  of  Yalladolid,  whom  the  presence  of 
the  cardinal  had  hitherto  restrained,  declared  that  they 
could  no  longer  remain  inactive  spectators  of  the  suffer- 
ings of  their  countrymen.  Taking  arms  with  no  less 
fury  than  the  other  cities,  they  burnt  Fonseca' s  house 
to  the  ground,  elected  new  magistrates,  raised  soldiers, 
appointed  officers  to  command  them,  and  guarded  their 
walls  with  as  much  diligence  as  if  an  enemy  had  been 
ready  to  attack  them. 

The  cardinal,  though  virtuous  and  disinterested,  and 
capable  of  governing  the  kingdom  with  honour  in  times 
of  tranquillity,  possessed  neither  the  courage  nor  the 
sagacity  necessary  at  such  a  dangerous  juncture.  Find- 
ing himself  unable  to  check  these  outrages  committed 
under  his  own  eye,  he  attempted  to  appease  the  people, 
by  protesting  that  Fonseca  had  exceeded  his  orders  and 
had  by  his  rash  conduct  offended  him  as  much  as  he  had 
injured  them.  This  condescension,  the  effect  of  irreso- 
lution and  timidity,  rendered  the  malcontents  bolder 
and  more  insolent ;  and  the  cardinal  having  soon  after 
recalled  Fonseca,  and  dismissed  his  troops,  which  he 
could  no  longer  afford  to  pay,  as  the  treasury,  drained  by 
the  rapaciousness  of  the  Flemish  ministers,  had  received 
no  supply  from  the  great  cities,  which  were  all  in  arms, 
the  p  ^ople  were  left  at  full  liberty  to  act  without  control, 
and  scarcely  any  shadow  of  power  remained  in  his  hands. 


BOOK  in.]  EMPEEOE  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  451 

Nor  were  the  proceedings  of  the  commons  the  effect 
merely  of  popular  and  tumultuary  rage  :  they  aimed  at 
obtaining  redress  of  their  political  grievances,  and  an 
establishment  of  public  liberty  on  a  secure  basis,  objects 
worthy  of  all  the  zeal  which  they  discovered  in  con- 
tending for  them.  The  feudal  government  in  Spain 
was  at  that  time  in  a  state  more  favourable  to  liberty 
than  in  any  other  of  the  great  European  kingdoms. 
This  was  owing  chiefly  to  the  number  of  great  cities  in 
that  country,  a  circumstance  I  have  already  taken  notice 
of,  and  which  contributes  more  than  any  other  to  miti- 
gate the  rigour  of  the  feudal  institutions  and  to  intro- 
duce a  more  liberal  and  equal  form  of  government.  The 
inhabitants  of  every  city  formed  a  great  corporation, 
with  valuable  immunities  and  privileges;  they  were 
delivered  from  a  state  of  subjection  and  vassalage  ;  they 
were  admitted  to  a  considerable  share  in  the  legislature ; 
they  had  acquired  the  arts  of  industry,  without  which 
cities  cannot  subsist ;  they  had  accumulated  wealth  by 
engaging  in  commerce ;  and,  being  free  and  independent 
themselves,  were  ever  ready  to  act  as  the  guardians  of 
the  public  freedom  and  independence.  The  genius  of 
the  internal  government  established  among  the  inhabi- 
tants of  cities,  which,  even  in  countries  where  despotic 
power  prevails  most,  is  democratical  and  republican, 
rendered  the  idea  of  liberty  familiar  and  dear  to  them. 
Their  representatives  in  the  cortes  were  accustomed, 
with  equal  spirit,  to  check  the  encroachments  of  the 
king  and  the  oppression  of  the  nobles.  They  endea- 
voured to  extend  the  privileges  of  their  own  order;  they 
laboured  to  shake  off  the  remaining  encumbrances  with 
which  the  spirit  of  feudal  policy,  favourable  only  to  the 
njbles,  had  burdened  them;  and,  conscious  of  being 
one  of  the  most  considerable  orders  in  the  state,  were 
ambitious  of  becoming  the  most  powerful. 

The  present  juncture  appeared  favourable  for  pushing 

a  o  2 


452  REIGN  OP  THE  [BOOK  in, 

any  new  claim.  Their  sovereign  was  absent  from  his 
dominions ;  by  the  ill-conduct  of  his  ministers  he  had 
lost  the  esteem  and  affection  of  his  subjects  ;  the  people, 
exasperated  bj  many  injuries,  had  taken  arms,  though 
without  conceit,  almost  by  general  consent ;  they  were 
animated  with  rage  capable  of  carrying  them  to  the  most 
violent  extremes  ;  the  royal  treasury  was  exhausted,  the 
kingdom  destitute  of  troops,  and  the  government  com- 
mitted to  a  stranger,  of  great  virtue,  indeed,  but  of  abili- 
ties unequal  to  such  a  trust.  The  first  care  of  Padilla 
and  the  other  popular  leaders,  who  observed  and  deter- 
mined to  improve  these  circumstances,  was  to  establish 
some  form  of  union  or  association  among  the  malcon- 
tents, that  they  might  act  with  greater  regularity  and 
pursue  one  common  end ;  and  as  the  different  cities  had 
been  prompted  to  take  arms  by  the  same  motives,  and 
were  accustomed  to  consider  themselves  as  a  distinct  body 
from  the  rest  of  the  subjects,  they  did  not  find  this 
difficult.  A  general  convention  was  appointed  to  be 
held  at  Avila.  Deputies  appeared  there  in  the  name  of 
almost  all  the  cities  entitled  to  have  representatives  in 
the  cortes.  They  all  bound  themselves,  by  solemn  oath, 
to  live  and  die  in  the  service  of  the  king  and  in  defence 
of  the  privileges  of  their  order,  and,  assuming  the  name 
of  the  "  holy  junta,"  or  association,  proceeded  to 
deliberate  concerning  the  state  of  the  nation  and  the 
proper  method  of  redressing  its  grievances.  The  first 
that  naturally  presented  itself  was  the  nomination  of  a 
foreigner  to  be  regent:  this  they  declared  with  one 
voice  to  be  a  violation  of  the  fundamental  laws  of  the 
kingdom,  and  resolved  to  send  a  deputation  of  their 
members  to  Adrian,  requiring  him  in  their  name  to 
lay  aside  all  the  ensigns  of  his  office,  and  to  abstain 
for  the  future  from  the  exercise  of  a  jurisdiction  which 
they  had  pronounced  illegal.5 

*  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  691. 


BOOK  in.]          EMPEBOB  CHABLES  THE  FIFTH.  453 

While  they  were  preparing  to  execute  this  bold  reso- 
lution, Padilla  accomplished  an  enterprise  of  the  great- 
est advantage  to  the  cause.  After  relieving  Segovia, 
he  marched  suddenly  to  Tordesillas,  the  place  where 
the  unhappy  Queen  Joanna  had  resided  since  the  death 
of  her  husband,  and,  being  favoured  by  the  inhabitants, 
was  admitted  into  the  town,  and  became  master  of  her 
person,  for  the  security  of  which  Adrian  had  neglected 
to  take  proper  precautions.6  Padilla  waited  immedi- 
ately upon  the  queen,  and,  accosting  her  with  that  pro- 
found respect  which  she  exacted  from  the  few  persons 
whom  she  deigned  to  admit  into  her  presence,  ac- 
quainted her  at  large  with  the  miserable  condition  of 
her  Castilian  subjects  under  the  government  of  her  son, 
who,  being  destitute  of  experience  himself,  permitted 
his  foreign  ministers  to  treat  them  with  such  rigour  as 
had  obliged  them  to  take  arms  in  defence  of  the  liber- 
ties of  their  country.  The  queen,  as  if  she  had  been 
awakened  out  of  a  lethargy,  expressed  great  astonish- 
ment at  what  he  said,  and  told  him  that,  as  she  had 
never  heard,  until  that  moment,  of  the  death  of  her 
father,  or  known  the  sufferings  of  her  people,  no  blame 
could  be  imputed  to  her,  but  that  now  she  would  take 
care  to  provide  a  sufficient  remedy.  "  And  in  the 
meantime,"  added  she,  "let  it  be  your  concern  to  do 
what  is  necessary  for  the  public  welfare."  Padilla,  too 
eager  in  forming  a  conclusion  agreeable  to  his  wishes, 
mistook  this  lucid  interval  of  reason  for  a  perfect  re- 
turn of  that  faculty,  and,  acquainting  the  junta  with 
what  had  happened,  advised  them  to  remove  to  Tor- 
desillas, and  to  hold  their  meetings  in  that  place. 
This  was  instantly  done;  but  though  Joanna  received 
very  graciously  an  address  of  the  junta  beseeching  her  to 
take,  upon  herself  the  government  of  the  kingdom,  and, 

6  Vita  dell'  Imper.  CarL  V.  dell'      Miniana,  Contin.,  p.  17. 
Alt  Ulloa,  Ven.,  1509,  p.  67.— 


454  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  in. 

in  token  of  her  compliance,  admitted  all  the  deputies  to 
kiss  her  hand, — though  she  was  present  at  a  tournament 
held  on  that  occasion,  and  seemed  highly  satisfied  with 
both  these  ceremonies,  which  were  conducted  with  great 
magnificence  in  order  to  please  her, — she  soon  relapsed 
into  her  former  melancholy  and  sullenness,  and  could 
never  be  brought,  by  any  arguments  or  entreaties,  to 
sign  any  one  paper  necessary  for  the  despatch  of  business.7 

The  junta,  concealing  as  much  as  possible  this  last 
circumstance,  carried  on  all  their  deliberations  in  the 
name  of  Joanna;  and  as  the  Castilians,  who  idolized 
the  memory  of  Isabella,  retained  a  wonderful  attach- 
ment to  her  daughter,  no  sooner  was  it  known  that  she 
had  consented  to  assume  the  reins  of  government  than 
the  people  expressed  the  most  universal  and  immoderate 
joy,  and,  believing  her  recovery  to  be  complete,  ascribed 
it  to  a  miraculous  interposition  of  Heaven  in  order  to 
rescue  their  country  from  the  oppression  of  foreigners. 
The  junta,  conscious  of  the  reputation  and  power  which 
they  had  acquired  by  seeming  to  act  under  the  royal 
authority,  were  no  longer  satisfied  with  requiring  Adrian 
to  resign  the  office  of  regent :  they  detached  Padilla  to 
Yalladolid  with  a  considerable  body  of  troops,  ordering 
him  to  seize  such  members  of  the  council  as  were  still  in 
that  city,  to  conduct  them  to  Tordesillas,  and  to  bring 
away  the  seals  of  the  kingdom,  the  public  archives,  and 
treasury  books.  Padilla,  who  was  received  by  the 
citizens  as  the  deliverer  of  his  country,  executed  his 
commission  with  great  exactness;  permitting  Adrian, 
however,  still  to  reside  in  Valladolid,  though  only  as  a 
private  person  and  without  any  shadow  of  power.8 

The  emperor,  to  whom  frequent  accounts  of  these 
transactions  were  transmitted  while  he  was  still  in 
Flanders,  was  sensible  of  his  own  imprudence  and  that 

7  Sandoval,  164.  —  P.  Martyr,  8  Sandoval,  174.  —  P.  Martyr 
Ep.,  685,  686.  Ep.,  791. 


BOOK  in.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  TfLti  ±1FTH.  455 

of  his  ministers  in  having  despised  too  long  the  mur- 
murs and  remonstrances  of  the  Castiliuns.  lie  beheld 
with  deep  concern  a  kingdom  the  most  valuable  of 
any  he  possessed,  and  in  which  lay  the  strength  and 
sinews  of  his  power,  just  ready  to  disown  his  authority 
and  on  the  point  of  being  plunged  in  all  the  miseries 
of  civil  war.  But,  though  his  presence  might  have 
averted  this  calamity,  he  could  not,  at  that  time,  visit 
Spain  without  endangering  the  imperial  crown  and 
allowing  the  French  king  full  leisure  to  execute  his  am- 
bitious schemes.  The  only  point  now  to  be  deliberated 
upon  was,  whether  he  should  attempt  to  gain  the  mal- 
contents by  indulgence  and  concessions,  or  prepare 
directly  to  suppress  them  by  force ;  and  he  resolved  to 
make  trial  of  the  former,  while  at  the  same  time,  if 
that  should  fail  of  success,  he  prepared  for  the  latter. 
For  this  purpose  he  issued  circular  letters  to  all  the 
cities  of  Castile,  exhorting  them  in  most  gentle  terms, 
and  with  assurances  of  full  pardon,  to  lay  down  their 
arms;  he  promised  such  cities  as  had  continued  faith- 
ful not  to  exact  from  them  the  subsidy  granted  in  the 
late  cortes,  and  offered  the  same  favour  to  such  as  re- 
turned to  their  duty ;  he  engaged  that  no  office  should 
be  conferred  for  the  future  upon  any  but  native  Cas- 
tilians.  On  the  other  hand,  he  wrote  to  the  nobles, 
exciting  them  to  appear  with  vigour  in  defence  of  their 
own  rights,  and  those  of  the  crown,  against  the  exor- 
bitant claims  of  the  commons;  he  appointed  the  high 
admiral,  Don  Fadrique  Enriques,  and  the  high  con- 
stable of  Castile,  Don  Inigo  de  Yalasco,  two  noblemen 
of  great  abilities  as  well  as  influence,  regents  of  the 
kingdom  in  conjunction  with  Adrian;  and  he  gave 
them  full  power  and  instructions,  if  the  obstinacy  of 
the  malcontents  should  render  it  necessary,  to  vindi- 
cate the  royal  authority  by  force  of  arms.9 

4  P.  Heuter.  Rer.  Austr.,  lib.  viii  c.  6,  p.  188. 


456  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  m. 

These  concessions,  which  at  the  time  of  his  leaving 
Spain  would  have  fully  satisfied  the  people,  came  now 
too  late  to  produce  any  effect.  The  junta,  relying  on 
the  unanimity  with  which  the  nation  submitted  to  their 
authority,  elated  with  the  success  which  hitherto  had 
accompanied  all  their  undertakings,  and  seeing  no 
military  force  collected  to  defeat  or  obstruct  their 
designs,  aimed  at  a  more  thorough  reformation  of  po- 
litical abuses.  They  had  been  employed  for  some  time 
in  preparing  a  remonstrance,  containing  a  large  enu- 
meration, not  only  of  the  grievances  of  which  they 
craved  redress,  but  of  such  new  regulations  as  they 
thought  necessary  for  the  security  of  their  liberties. 
This  remonstrance,  which  is  divided  into  many  articles, 
relating  to  all  the  different  members  of  which  the  con- 
stitution was  composed,  as  well  as  the  various  depart- 
ments in  the  administration  of  government,  furnishes  us 
with  more  authentic  evidence  concerning  the  intentions  of 
the  junta  than  can  be  drawn  from  the  testimony  of  the 
later  Spanish  historians,  who  lived  in  times  when  it 
became  fashionable,  and  even  necessary,  to  represent  the 
conduct  of  the  malcontents  in  the  worst  light  and  as 
flowing  from  the  worst  motives.  After  a  long  preamble 
concerning  the  various  calamities  under  which  the 
nation  groaned,  and  the  errors  and  corruption  in  govern- 
ment to  which  these  were  to  be  imputed,  they  take 
notice  of  the  exemplary  patience  wherewith  the  people 
had  endured  them,  until  self-preservation,  and  the  duty 
which  they  owed  to  their  country,  had  obliged  them  to 
assemble,  in  order  to  provide  in  a  legal  manner  for  their 
own  safety  and  that  of  the  constitution.  For  this 
purpose  they  demanded  that  the  king  would  be  pleased 
to  return  to  his  Spanish  dominions  and  reside  there,  as 
all  their  former  monarchs  had  done ;  that  he  would  not 
marry  but  with  consent  of  the  cortes ;  that  if  he  should 
be  obliged  at  any  time  to  leave  the  kingdom,  it  shall  not 


BOOK  in.]          EMPEKOR  CHAliLES  THE  FIFTH.  457 

be  lawful  to  appoint  any  foreigner  to  be  regent;  that 
the  present  nomination  of  Cardinal  Adrian  to  that  office 
shall  instantly  be  declared  void ;  that  he  would  not,  at 
his  return,  bring  along  with  him  any  Flemings  or  other 
strangers  ;  that  no  foreign  troops  shall,  on  any  pretence 
whatever,  be  introduced  into  the  kingdom;  that  none 
but  natives  shall  be  capable  of  holding  any  office  or 
benefice  either  in  church  or  state;  that  no  foreigner 
shall  be  naturalized;  that  free  quarters  shall  not  be 
granted  to  soldiers,  nor  to  the  members  of  the  king's 
household,  for  any  longer  time  than  six  days,  and  that 
only  when  the  court  is  in  a  progress ;  that  all  the  taxes 
shall  be  reduced  to  the  same  state  they  were  in  at  the 
death  of  Queen  Isabella;  that  all  alienations  of  the 
royal  demesnes  or  revenues  since  the  queen's  death 
shall  be  resumed;  that  all  new  offices  created  since 
that  period  shall  be  abolished ;  that  the  subsidy  granted 
by  the  late  cortes  in  Galicia  shall  not  be  exacted ;  that 
in  all  future  cortes  each  city  shall  send  one  representa- 
tive of  the  clergy,  one  of  the  gentry,  and  one  of  the 
commons,  each  to  be  elected  by  his  own  order ;  that  the 
crown  shall  not  influence  or  direct  any  city  with  regard 
to  the  choice  of  its  representatives;  that  no  member 
of  the  cortes  shall  receive  an  office  or  pension  from  the 
king,  either  for  himself  or  for  any  of  his  family,  under 
pain  of  death  and  confiscation  of  his  goods ;  that  each 
city  or  community  shall  pay  a  competent  salary  to  its 
representative  for  his  maintenance  during  his  attend- 
ance on  the  cortes ;  that  the  cortes  shall  assemble  once 
in  three  years  at  least,  whether  summoned  by  the  king 
or  not,  and  shall  then  inquire  into  the  observation  of 
the  articles  now  agreed  upon,  and  deliberate  concern- 
ing public  affairs;  that  the  rewards  which  have  been 
given  or  promised  to  any  of  the  members  of  the  cortes 
held  in  Galicia  shall  be  revoked;  that  it  shall  be 
declared  a  capital  crime  to  send  gold,  silver,  or  jewels 


458  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  m. 

out  of  the  kingdom ;  that  judges  shall  have  fixed  sala- 
ries assigned  them,  and  shall  not  receive  any  share  of 
the  fines  and  forfeitures  of  persons  condemned  by 
them ;  that  no  grant  of  the  goods  of  persons  accused 
shall  be  valid  if  given  before  sentence  was  pronounced 
against  them  ;  that  all  privileges  which  the  nobles  have 
at  any  time  obtained,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  commons, 
shall  be  revoked;  that  the  government  of  cities  or 
towns  shall  not  be  put  into  the  hands  of  noblemen; 
that  the  possessions  of  the  nobility  shall  be  subject  to 
all  public  taxes,  in  the  same  manner  as  those  of  the 
commons;  that  an  inquiry  be  made  into  the  conduct 
of  such  as  have  been  intrusted  with  the  management 
of  the  royal  patrimony  since  the  accession  of  Ferdi- 
nand, and  if  the  king  do  not  within  thirty  days  appoint 
persons  properly  qualified  for  that  service,  it  shall  be 
lawful  for  the  cortes  to  nominate  them ;  that  indulgences 
shall  not  be  preached  or  dispersed  in  the  kingdom  until 
the  cause  of  publishing  them  be  examined  and  approved 
of  by  the  cortes ;  that  all  the  money  arising  from  the  sale 
of  indulgences  shall  be  faithfully  employed  in  carrying 
on  war  against  the  infidels ;  that  such  prelates  as  do  not 
reside  in  their  dioceses  six  months  in  the  year  shall 
forfeit  their  revenues  during  the  time  they  are  absent ; 
that  the  ecclesiastical  judges  and  their  officers  shall  not 
exact  greater  fees  than  those  which  are  paid  in  the 
secular  courts;  that  the  present  archbishop  of  Toledo, 
being  a  foreigner,  be  compelled  to  resign  that  dignity, 
which  shall  be  conferred  upon  a  Castilian ;  that  the  king 
shall  ratify  and  hold,  as  good  service  done  to  him  and  to 
the  kingdom,  all  the  proceedings  of  the  junta,  and 
pardon  any  irregularities  which  the  cities  may  have 
committed  from  an  excess  of  zeal  in  a  good  cause ; 
that  he  shall  promise  and  swear  in  the  most  solemn 
manner  to  observe  all  these  articles,  and  on  no  occa- 
sion attempt  either  to  elude  or  to  repeal  them ;  and  that 


BOOK  in.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  459 

he  shall  never  solicit  the  pope  or  any  other  prelate  to 
grant  him  a  dispensation  or  absolution  from  this  oath 
and  promise.10 

Such  were  the  chief  articles  presented  by  the  junta 
to  their  sovereign.  As  the  feudal  institutions  in  the 
several  kingdoms  of  Europe  were  originally  the  same, 
the  genius  of  those  governments  which  arose  from 
them  bore  a  strong  resemblance  to  each  other,  and 
the  regulations  which  the  Castilians  attempted  to 
establish  on  this  occasion  differ  little  from  those  which 
other  nations  have  laboured  to  procure  in  their  strug- 
gles with  their  monarchs  for  liberty.  The  grievances 
complained  of  and  the  remedies  proposed  by  the  English 
commons  in  their  contests  with  the  princes  of  the  house 
of  Stuart  particularly  resemble  those  upon  which  the 
junta  now  insisted.  But  the  principles  of  liberty  seem 
to  have  been  better  understood  at  this  period  by  the 
Castilians  than  by  any  other  people  in  Europe;  they 
had  acquired  more  liberal  ideas  with  respect  to  their 
own  rights  and  privileges ;  they  had  formed  more  bold 
and  generous  sentiments  concerning  government,  and 
discovered  an  extent  of  political  knowledge  to  which  the 
English  themselves  did  not  attain  until  more  than  a 
century  afterwards. 

It  is  not  improbable,  however,  that  the  spirit  of 
reformation  among  the  Castilians,  hitherto  unrestrained 
by  authority  and  emboldened  by  success,  became  too 
impetuous,  and  prompted  the  junta  to  propose  innova- 
tions which,  by  alarming  the  other  members  of  the  con- 
stitution, proved  fatal  to  their  cause.  The  nobles,  who, 
instead  of  obstructing,  had  favoured  or  connived  at 
their  proceedings,  while  they  confined  their  demands 
of  redress  to  such  grievances  as  had  been  occasioned 
by  the  king's  want  of  experience  and  by  the  impru- 
dence and  rapaciousness  of  his  foreign  ministers,  were 

10  Sandoyal,  206.— P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  686. 


460  fcEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  m. 

filled  with  indignation  when  the  junta  began  to  touch 
the  privileges  of  their  order,  and  plainly  saw  that  the 
measures  of  the  commons  tended  no  less  to  break  the 
power  of  the  aristocracy  than  to  limit  the  prerogatives 
of  the  crown.  The  resentment  which  they  had  con- 
ceived on  account  of  Adrian's  promotion  to  the  regency 
abated  considerably  upon  the  emperor's  raising  the  con- 
stable and  admiral  to  joint  power  with  him  in  that  office; 
and,  as  their  pride  and  dignity  were  less  hurt  by  suffer- 
ing the  prince  to  possess  an  extensive  prerogative  than 
by  admitting  the  high  pretensions  of  the  people,  they 
determined  to  give  their  sovereign  the  assistance  which 
he  had  demanded  of  them,  and  began  to  assemble  their 
vassals  for  that  purpose. 

The  junta,  meanwhile,  expected  with  impatience  the 
emperor's  answer  to  their  remonstrance,  which  they 
had  appointed  some  of  their  number  to  present.  The 
members  intrusted  with  this  commission  set  out  imme- 
diately for  Germany ;  but,  having  received  at  different 
places  certain  intelligence  from  court  that  they  could 
not  venture  to  appear  there  without  endangering  their 
lives,  they  stopped  short  in  their  journey,  and  acquainted 
the  junta  of  the  information  which  had  been  given 
them.11  This  excited  such  violent  passions  as  trans- 
ported the  whole  party  beyond  all  bounds  of  prudence 
or  of  moderation.  That  a  king  of  Castile  should  den} 
his  subjects  access  into  his  presence,  or  refuse  to  listen 
to  their  humble  petitions,  was  represented  as  an  act  of 
tyranny  so  unprecedented  and  intolerable  that  nothing 
now  remained  but  with  arms  in  their  hands  to  drive 
away  that  ravenous  band  of  foreigners  which  encom- 
passed the  throne,  who,  after  having  devoured  the 
wealth  of  the  kingdom,  found  it  necessary  to  prevent 
the  cries  of  an  injured  people  from  reaching  the  ears 
of  their  sovereign.  Many  insisted  warmly  on  approv- 

11  Sandoval,  143. 


BOOK  in.]          EMPEEOE  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  461 

ing  a  motion  which  had  formerly  been  made,  for  de- 
priving Charles,  during  the  life  of  his  mother,  of  the 
regal  titles  and  authority  which  had  been  too  rashly 
conferred  upon  him,  from  a  false  supposition  of  her 
total  inability  for  government.  Some  proposed  to  pro- 
vide a  proper  person  to  assist  her  in  the  administration 
of  public  affairs,  by  marrying  the  queen  to  the  prince 
of  Calabria,  the  heir  of  the  Aragonese  kings  of  Naples, 
who  had  been  detained  in  prison  since  the  time  that 
Ferdinand  had  dispossessed  his  ancestors  of  their  crown. 
All  agreed  that,  as  the  hopes  of  obtaining  redress  and 
security  merely  by  presenting  their  requests  to  their 
sovereign  had  kept  them  too  long  in  a  state  of  inac- 
tion and  prevented  them  from  taking  advantage  of  the 
unanimity  with  which  the  nation  declared  in  their 
favour,  it  was  now  necessary  to  collect  their  whole  force, 
and  to  exert  themselves  with  vigour,  in  opposing  this 
fatal  combination  of  the  king  and  the  nobility  against 
their  liberties.12 

They  soon  took  the  field  with  twenty  thousand  men. 
Violent  disputes  arose  concerning  the  command  of  this 
army.  Padilla,  the  darling  of  the  people  and  soldiers, 
was  the  only  person  whom  they  thought  worthy  of  this 
honour.  But  Don  Pedro  de  Griron,  the  eldest  son  of 
the  Conde  de  Uruena,  a  young  nobleman  of  the  first 
order,  having  lately  joined  the  commons  out  of  private 
resentment  against  the  emperor,  the  respect  due  to  his 
birth,  together  with  a  secret  desire  of  disappointing 
Padilla,  of  whose  popularity  many  members  of  the  junta 
had  become  jealous,  procured  him  the  office  of  general; 
though  he  soon  gave  them  a  fatal  proof  that  he  pos- 
sessed neither  the  experience,  the  abilities,  nor  the 
steadiness  which  that  important  station  required. 

The  regents,  meanwhile,  appointed  Eioseco  as  the 
place  of  rendezvous  for  their  troops,  which,  though  fax 

11  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  688. 


REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  ni. 

inferior  to  those  of  the  commons  in  number,  excelled 
them  greatly  in  discipline  and  in  valour.  They  had 
drawn  a  considerable  body  of  regular  and  veteran  in- 
fantry out  of  Navarre.  Their  cavalry,  which  formed 
the  chief  strength  of  their  army,  consisted  mostly  of 
gentlemen  accustomed  to  the  military  life  and  ani- 
mated with  the  martial  spirit  peculiar  to  their  order  in 
that  age.  The  infantry  of  the  junta  ivas  formed  en- 
tirely of  citizens  and  mechanics,  little  acquainted  with 
the  use  of  arms.  The  small  body  of  cavalry  which  they 
had  been  able  to  raise  was  composed  of  persons  of 
ignoble  birth,  and  perfect  strangers  to  the  service  into 
which  they  entered.  The  character  of  the  generals 
differed  no  less  than  that  of  their  troops.  The  royalists 
were  commanded  by  the  Conde  de  Haro,  the  constable's 
eldest  son,  an  officer  of  great  experience  and  of  dis- 
tinguished abilities. 

Giron  marched  with  his  army  directly  to  Eioseco, 
and,  seizing  the  villages  and  passes  around  it,  hoped 
that  the  royalists  would  be  obliged  either  to  surrender 
for  want  of  provisions,  or  to  fight  with  disadvantage 
before  all  their  troops  were  assembled.  But  he  had  not 
the  abilities,  nor  his  troops  the  patience  and  discipline, 
necessary  for  the  execution  of  such  a  scheme.  The 
Conde  de  Haro  found  little  difficulty  in  conducting  a 
considerable  reinforcement  through  all  his  posts  into 
the  town;  and  Giron,  despairing  of  being  able  to  re- 
duce it,  advanced  suddenly  to  Yillapanda,  a  place  be- 
longing to  the  constable,  in  which  the  enemy  had  their 
chief  magazine  of  provisions.  By  this  ill-judged  motion 
he  left  Tordesillas  open  to  the  royalists,  whom  the 
Conde  de  Haro  led  thither  in  the  night  with  the  utmost 
secrecy  and  despatch ;  and  attacking  the  town,  in  which 
Giron  had  left  no  other  garrison  than  a  regiment  of 
priests  raised  by  the  bishop  of  Zamora,  he,  by  break 
of  day,  forced  his  way  into  it,  after  a  desperate  resist- 


BOOK  in.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  463 

ance,  became  master  of  the  queen's  person,  took  pri- 
soners many  members  of  the  junta,  and  recovered  the 
great  seal,  with  the  other  ensigns  of  government. 

By  this  fatal  blow  the  junta  lost  all  the  reputation 
and  authority  which  they  had  derived  from  seeming  to 
act  by  the  queen's  commands;  such  of  the  nobles  as 
had  hitherto  been  wavering  or  undetermined  in  their 
choice  now  joined  the  regents,  with  all  their  forces ; 
and  an  universal  consternation  seized  the  partizans  of 
the  commons.  This  was  much  increased  by  the  sus- 
picions they  began  to  entertain  of  Giron,  whom  they 
loudly  accused  of  having  betrayed  Tordesillas  to  the 
enemy;  and,  though  that  charge  seems  to  have  been 
destitute  of  foundation,  the  success  of  the  royalists 
being  owing  to  Giron' s  ill-conduct  rather  than  to  his 
treachery,  he  so  entirely  lost  credit  with  his  party  that 
he  resigned  his  commissioD  and  retired  to  one  of  his 
castles.13 

Such  members  of  the  junta  as  had  escaped  the 
enemy's  hands  at  Tordesillas  fled  to  Yalladolid;  and, 
as  it  would  have  required  long  time  to  supply  the 
places  of  those  who  were  prisoners  by  a  new  election, 
they  made  choice  among  themselves  of  a  small  number 
of  persons,  to  whom  they  committed  the  supreme  di- 
rection of  affairs.  Their  army,  which  grew  stronger 
every  day  by  the  arrival  of  troops  from  different  parts 
of  the  kingdom,  marched  likewise  to  Yalladolid;  and, 
Padilla  being  appointed  commander-in-chief,  the  spirits 
of  the  soldiery  revived,  and  the  whole  party,  forget- 
ting the  late  misfortune,  continued  to  express  the  same 
ardent  zeal  for  the  liberties  of  their  country,  and  the 
same  implacable  animosity  against  their  oppressors. 

What  they  stood  most  in  need  of  was  money  to  pay 
their  troops.  A  great  part  of  the  current  coin  had 
been  carried  out  of  the  kingdom  by  the  Flemings ;  the 

11  Miscellaneous  Tracts,  by  Dr.  Mich.  Geddes,  voL  i.  p.  278. 


464  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  in. 

stated  taxes  levied  in  times  of  peace  were  inconsider- 
able ;  commerce  of  every  kind  being  interrupted  by  the 
war,  the  sum  which  it  yielded  decreased  daily ;  and  the 
junta  were  afraid  of  disgusting  the  people  by  burdening 
them  with  new  impositions,  to  which,  in  that  age,  they 
were  little  accustomed.  But  from  this  difficulty  they 
were  extricated  by  Donna  Maria  Pacheco,  Padilla's 
wife,  a  woman  of  noble  birth,  of  great  abilities,  of 
boundless  ambition,  and  animated  with  the  most  ardent 
zeal  in  support  of  the  cause  of  the  junta.  She,  with  a 
boldness  superior  to  those  superstitious  fears  which 
often  influence  her  sex,  proposed  to  seize  all  the  rich  and 
magnificent  ornaments  in  the  cathedral  of  Toledo  ;  but, 
lest  that  action,  by  its  appearance  of  impiety,  might 
offend  the  people,  she  and  her  retinue  marched  to  the 
church  in  solemn  procession,  in  mourning  habits,  with 
tears  in  their  eyes,  beating  their  breasts,  and,  falling  on 
their  knees,  implored  the  pardon  of  the  saints  whose 
shrines  she  was  about  to  violate.  By  this  artifice,  which 
screened  her  from  the  imputation  of  sacrilege,  and  per- 
suaded the  people  that  necessity  and  zeal  for  a  good 
cause  had  constrained  her,  though  with  reluctance,  to 
venture  upon  this  action,  she  stripped  the  cathedral  of 
whatever  was  valuable,  and  procured  a  considerable  sum 
of  money  for  the  junta.14  The  regents,  no  less  at  a  loss 
how  to  maintain  their  troops,  the  revenues  of  the  crown 
having  either  been  dissipated  by  the  Flemings  or  seized 
by  the  commons,  were  obliged  to  take  the  queen's 
jewels,  together  with  the  plate  belonging  to  the  nobility, 
and  apply  them  to  that  purpose ;  and  when  those  failed, 
they  obtained  a  small  sum  by  way  of  loan  from  the  king 
of  Portugal.15 

The  nobility  discovered  great  unwillingness  to  pro- 
ceed to  extremities  with   the   junta.     They  were  ani- 

14  Sandoval,     308.  —  Diet     de  1S  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  71 R 

Bayle,  art.  Padflla. 


BOOK  in.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THH  FIFTH.  465 

mated  with  no  less  hatred  than  the  commons  against 
the  Flemings;  they  approved  much  of  several  articles 
in  the  remonstrance ;  they  thought  the  juncture  favour- 
able not  only  for  redressing  past  grievances,  but  for 
rendering  the  constitution  more  perfect  and  secure  by 
new  regulations ;  they  were  afraid  that,  while  the  two 
orders  of  which  the  legislature  was  composed  wasted 
each  other's  strength  by  mutual  hostilities,  the  crown 
would  rise  to  power  on  the  ruin  or  weakness  of  both, 
and  encroach  no  less  on  the  independence  of  the 
nobles  than  on  the  privileges  of  the  commons.  To 
this  disposition  were  owing  the  frequent  overtures  of 
peace  which  the  regents  made  to  the  junta,  and  the 
continual  negotiations  they  carried  on  during  the  pro- 
gress of  their  military  operations.  Nor  were  the  terms 
which  they  offered  unreasonable;  for,  on  condition 
that  the  junta  would  pass  from  a  few  articles  most  sub- 
versive of  the  royal  authority  or  inconsistent  with  the 
rights  of  the  nobility,  they  engaged  to  procure  the 
emperor's  consent  to  their  other  demands,  which  if 
he,  through  the  influence  of  evil  counsellors,  should 
refuse,  several  of  the  nobles  promised  to  join  with  the 
commons  in  their  endeavours  to  extort  it.16  Such  di- 
visions, however,  prevailed  among  the  members  of  the 
junta  as  prevented  their  deliberating  calmly  or  judging 
with  prudence.  Some  of  the  cities  which  had  entered 
into  the  confederacy  were  filled  with  that  mean  jealousy 
and  distrust  of  each  other  which  rivalship  in  commerce 
or  in  grandeur  is  apt  to  inspire ;  the  constable,  by  his 
influence  and  promises,  had  prevailed  on  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Burgos  to  abandon  the  junta,  and  other  noble- 
men had  shaken  the  fidelity  of  some  of  the  lesser  cities ; 
no  person  had  arisen  among  the  commons  of  such 
superior  abilities  or  elevation  of  mind  as  to  acquire  the 
direction  of  their  affairs;  Padilla,  their  general,  was  a 

16  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  695,  713. — Geddes'e  Tracts,  I  261. 

VOL.  I.  H  H 


466  REIGN  OP  THE  [BOOK  m, 

man  of  popular  qualities,  but  distrusted  for  that  reason 
by  those  of  highest  rank  who  adhered  to  the  junta ;  the 
conduct  of  Giron  led  the  people  to  view  with  suspicion 
every  person  of  noble  birth  who  joined  their  party ;  so 
that  the  strongest  marks  of  irresolution,  mutual  dis- 
trust, and  mediocrity  of  genius  appeared  in  all  their 
proceedings  at  this  time.  After  many  consultations 
held  concerning  the  terms  proposed  by  the  regents, 
they  suffered  themselves  to  be  so  carried  away  by 
resentment  against  the  nobility  that,  rejecting  all 
thoughts  of  accommodation,  they  threatened  to  strip 
them  of  the  crown  lands,  which  they  or  their  ances- 
tors had  usurped,  and  to  re-annex  these  to  the  royal 
domain.  Upon  this  preposterous  scheme,  which  would 
at  once  have  annihilated  all  the  liberties  for  which  they 
had  been  struggling,  by  rendering  the  kings  of  Castile 
absolute  and  independent  of  their  subjects,  they  were  so 
intent  that  they  now  exclaimed  with  less  vehemence 
against  the  exactions  of  the  foreign  ministers  than 
against  the  exorbitant  power  and  wealth  of  the  nobles, 
and  seemed  to  hope  that  they  might  make  peace  with 
Charles  by  offering  to  enrich  him  with  their  spoils. 

The  success  which  Padilla  had  met  with  in  several 
small  rencounters,  and  in  reducing  some  inconsiderable 
towns,  helped  to  precipitate  the  members  of  the  junta 
into  this  measure,  filling  them  with  such  confidence  in 
the  valour  of  their  troops  that  they  hoped  for  an  easy 
victory  over  the  royalists.  Padilla,  that  his  army  might 
not  remain  inactive  while  flushed  with  good  fortune,  laid 
siege  to  Torrelobaton,  a  place  of  greater  strength  and 
importance  than  any  that  he  had  hitherto  ventured  to 
attack,  and  which  was  defended  by  a  sufficient  garrison; 
and  though  the  besieged  made  a  desperate  resistance, 
and  the  admiral  attempted  to  relieve  them,  he  took  the 
town  by  storm,  and  gave  it  up  to  be  plundered  by  his 
soldiers.  If  he  had  marched  instantly  with  his  vie- 


BOOK  in.]          EMPEBOH  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  467 

torious  army  to  Tordesillas,  the  head-quarters  of  the 
royalists,  he  could  hardly  have  failed  of  making  ail 
effectual  impression  on  their  troops,  whom  he  would 
have  found  in  astonishment  at  the  briskness  of  his  opera- 
tions and  far  from  being  of  sufficient  strength  to  give 
him  battle.  But  the  fickleness  and  imprudence  of  the 
junta  prevented  his  taking  this  step.  Incapable,  like 
all  popular  associations,  either  of  carrying  on  war  or 
of  making  peace,  they  listened  again  to  overtures  of 
accommodation,  and  even  agreed  to  a  short  suspension 
of  arms.  This  negotiation  terminated  in  nothing ;  but, 
while  it  was  carrying  on,  many  of  Padilla's  soldiers, 
unacquainted  with  the  restraints  of  discipline,  went  off 
with  the  booty  which  they  had  got  at  Torrelobaton,  and 
others,  wearied  out  by  the  unusual  length  of  the  cam- 
paign, deserted.17  The  constable,  too,  had  leisure  to 
assemble  his  forces  at  Burgos,  and  to  prepare  every- 
thing for  taking  the  field ;  and  as  soon  as  the  truce 
expired  he  effected  a  junction  with  the  Conde  de  Haro, 
in  spite  of  all  Padilla's  efforts  to  prevent  it.  They 
advanced  immediately  towards  Torrelobaton ;  and 
Padilla,  finding  the  number  of  his  troops  so  diminished 
that  he  durst  not  risk  a  battle,  attempted  to  retreat  to 
Toro,  which  if  he  could  have  accomplished,  the  invasion 
of  Navarre  at  that  juncture  by  the  French,  and  the 
necessity  which  the  regents  must  have  been  under  of 
detaching  men  to  that  kingdom,  might  have  saved  him 
from  danger.  But  Haro,  sensible  how  fatal  the  conse- 
quences would  be  of  suffering  him  to  escape,  marched 
with  such  rapidity  at  the  head  of  his  cavalry  that  he 
came  up  with  him  near  Yillalar,  and,  without  waiting 
for  his  infantry,  advanced  to  the  attack.  Padilla's  army, 
fatigued  and  disheartened  by  their  precipitate  retreat, 
which  they  could  not  distinguish  from  a  flight,  hap- 
pened at  that  time  to  be  passing  over  a  ploughed  field, 

17  Sandovai,  336. 

•  Hi 


468  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  in. 

on  which  such  a  violent  rain  had  fallen  that  the  soldiers 
sunk  almost  to  the  knees  at  every  step,  and  remained 
exposed  to  the  fire  of  some  field -pieces  which  the 
royalists  had  brought  along  with  them.  All  these  cir- 
cumstances so  disconcerted  and  intimidated  raw  soldiers 
that,  without  facing  the  enemy  or  making  any  resistance, 
they  fled  in  the  utmost  confusion.  Padilla  exerted  him- 
self with  extraordinary  courage  and  activity  in  order  to 
rally  them,  though  in  vain ;  fear  rendering  them  deaf 
both  to  his  threats  and  entreaties.  Upon  which,  finding 
matters  irretrievable,  and  resolving  not  to  survive  the 
disgrace  of  that  day  and  the  ruin  of  his  party,  he  rushed 
into  the  thickest  of  the  enemy ;  but,  being  wounded  and 
dismounted,  he  was  taken  prisoner.  His  principal 
officers  shared  the  same  fate ;  the  common  soldiers  were 
allowed  to  depart  unhurt,  the  nobles  being  too  generous 
to  kill  men  who  threw  down  their  arms.18 

The  resentment  of  his  enemies  did  not  suffer  Padilla 
to  linger  long  in  expectation  of  what  should  befall  him. 
Next  day  he  was  condemned  to  lose  his  head,  though 
without  any  regular  trial,  the  notoriety  of  the  crime 
being  supposed  sufficient  to  supersede  the  formality  of 
a  legal  process.  He  was  led  instantly  to  execution, 
together  with  Don  John  Bravo  and  Don  Francis  Mal- 
donada,  the  former  commander  of  the  Segovians,  and 
the  latter  of  the  troops  of  Salamanca.  Padilla  viewed 
the  approach  of  death  with  calm  but  undaunted  forti- 
tude ;  and  when  Bravo,  his  fellow-sufferer,  expressed 
some  indignation  at  hearing  himself  proclaimed  a  traitor, 
he  checked  him  by  observing,  "  That  yesterday  was  the 
time  to  have  displayed  the  spirit  of  gentlemen ;  this  day 
to  die  with  the  meekness  of  Christians."  Being  per- 
mitted to  write  to  his  wife  and  to  the  community  of 

18  Sandoval,  345,  etc. — P.  Martyr.  Emperador  Carlos  V.,  por  D.  Juan 
Ep.,  720. — Miniana,  Contin.,  p.  26.  Anton,  de  Vera  y  Ziiniga,  4to, 
— Epitome  de  la  Vida  y  Hechos  del  Madrid,  1627,  p.  19. 


BOOK  III.] 


EMTEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH. 


469 


Toledo,    the   place   of  his   nativity,    he   addressed   the 
former  with  a  manly  and  virtuous  tenderness,  and  the 

V  f 

latter  with  the  exultation  natural  to  one  who  considered 
himself  as  a  martyr  for  the  liberties  of  his  country.'9 


19  The  strain  of  these  letters  is  so 
eloquent  and  high-spirited  that  I 
have  translated  them  for  the  enter- 
tainment of  my  readers : 

THE  LETTEB  OP  DON  JOHN  PADILLA 
TO  HIS  WIFE. 

"  Sefiora, — 

"  If  your  grief  did  not  afflict  me 
more  than  my  own  death,  I  should 
deem  myself  perfectly  happy.  For, 
the  end  of  life  being  certain  to  all 
men,  the  Almighty  confers  a  mark 
of  distinguishing  favour  upon  that 
person  for  whom  he  appoints  a 
death  such  as  mine,  which,  though 
lamented  by  many,  is  nevertheless 
acceptable  unto  him.  It  would  re- 
quire more  time  than  I  now  have 
to  write  any  thing  that  could  afford 
you  consolation.  That  my  enemies 
will  not  grant  me,  nor  do  I  wish  to 
delay  the  reception  of  that  crown 
which  I  hope  to  enjoy.  You  may 
bewail  your  own  loss,  but  not  my 
death,  which,  being  so  honourable, 
ought  not  to  be  lamented  by  any. 
My  soul,  for  nothing  else  is  left  to 
me,  I  bequeath  to  you.  You  will 
receive  it  as  the  thing  in  this  world 
which  you  value  most.  I  do  not 
write  to  my  father,  Pero  Lopez, 
because  I  dare  not ;  for,  though  I 
have  shown  myself  to  be  his  son,  in 
daring  to  lose  my  life  I  have  not 
been  the  heir  of  his  good  fortune. 
I  will  not  attempt  to  say  any  thing 
more,  that  I  may  not  tire  the  exe- 
cutioner, who  waits  for  me,  and 
that  I  may  not  excite  a  suspicion 
that  in  order  to  prolong  my  life  I 
lengthen  out  my  letter.  My  servant 
Sosia,  an  eye-witness,  and  to  whom  I 


hare  communicated  my  most  secret 
thoughts,  will  inform  you  of  what  I 
cannot  now  write  ;  and  thus  I  rest, 
expecting  the  instrument  of  your 
grief  and  of  my  deliverance." 

HIS  LETTER  TO  THE  CITY  OP  TOLEDO. 

"  To  thee,  the  crown  of  Spain 
and  the  light  of  the  whole  world, 
free  from  the  time  of  the  mighty 
Goths, — to  thee,  who,  by  shedding 
the  blood  of  strangers,  as  well  as 
thy  own  blood,  hast  recovered 
liberty  for  thyself  and  thy  neigh- 
bouring cities,  thy  legitimate  son, 
Juan  de  Pad  ilia,  gives  information 
how  by  the  blood  of  his  body  thy 
ancient  victories  are  to  be  refreshed. 
If  fate  hath  not  permitted  my 
actions  to  be  placed  among  your 
successful  and  celebrated  exploits, 
the  fault  hath  been  in  my  ill  for- 
tune, not  in  my  good  will  This  I 
request  of  thee,  as  of  a  mother,  to 
accept,  since  God  hath  given  me 
nothing  more  to  lose  for  thy  sake 
than  that  which  I  am  now  to  relin- 
quish. I  am  more  solicitous  about 
thy  good  opinion  than  about  my 
own  life.  The  shiftings  of  fortune, 
which  never  stand  still,  are  many. 
But  this  I  see,  with  infinite  conso- 
lation, that  I,  the  least  of  thy  chil- 
dren, suffer  death  for  thee ;  and 
that  thou  hast  nursed  at  thy  breasts 
such  as  may  take  vengeance  for  my 
wrongs.  Many  tongues  will  relate 
the  manner  of  my  death,  of  which 
I  am  still  ignorant,  though  I  know 
it  to  be  near.  My  end  will  testify 
what  was  my  desire.  My  soul  I 
recommend  to  thee  as  to  the  patro- 
ness of  Christianity.  Of  my  body 


470  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  in. 

After  this,  he  submitted  quietly  to  his  fate.  Most  of 
the  Spanish  historians,  accustomed  to  ideas  of  govern 
ment  and  of  regal  power  very  different  from  those  upon 
which  he  acted,  have  been  so  eager  to  testify  their  dis- 
approbation of  the  cause  in  which  he  was  engaged  that 
they  have  neglected  or  have  been  afraid  to  do  justice  to 
his  virtues,  and,  by  blackening  his  memory,  have  endea- 
voured to  deprive  him  of  that  pity  which  is  seldom 
denied  to  illustrious  sufferers. 

The  victory  at  Yillalar  proved  as  decisive  as  it  was 
complete.  Valladolid,  the  most  zealous  of  all  the  asso- 
ciated cities,  opened  its  gates  immediately  to  the  con- 
querors, and,  being  treated  with  great  clemency  by  the 
regents,  Medina  del  Campo,  Segovia,  and  many  other 
towns  followed  its  example.  This  sudden  dissolution  of 
a  confederacy,  formed  not  upon  slight  disgusts  or  upon 
trifling  motives,  into  which  the  whole  body  of  the  people 
had  entered,  and  which  had  been  allowed  time  to  acquire 
a  considerable  degree  of  order  and  consistence  by  estab- 
lishing a  regular  plan  of  government,  is  the  strongest 
proof  either  of  the  inability  of  its  leaders  or  of  some 
secret  discord  reigning  among  its  members.  Though 
part  of  that  army  by  which  they  had  been  subdued  was 
obliged,  a  few  days  after  the  battle,  to  march  towards 
Navarre,  in  order  to  check  the  progress  of  the  French  in 
that  kingdom,  nothing  could  prevail  on  the  dejected 
commons  of  Castile  to  take  arms  again,  and  to  embrace 
such  a  favourable  opportunity  of  acquiring  those  rights 
and  privileges  for  which  they  had  appeared  so  zealous. 
The  city  of  Toledo  alone,  animated  by  Donna  Maria 
Pacheco,  Padilla's  widow,  who,  instead  of  bewailing 
her  husband  with  a  womanish  sorrow,  prepared  to  re- 

I  say  nothing,  for  it  is  not  mine.  thy  displeasure  than  apprehension 

I   can  write  nothing  more,  for  at  of  my  own  pain." — Sandoval,  Hist., 

this  very  moment  I  feel  the  knife  vol.  i  p.  478. 
at  my  throat,  with  greater  dread  of 


BOOK  m.]          EMPEEOE  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  471 

venge  his  death  and  to  prosecute  that  cause  in  defence 
of  which  he  had  suffered,  must  be  excepted.  Respect 
for  her  sex,  or  admiration  for  her  courage  and  abilities, 
as  well  as  sympathy  with  her  misfortunes  and  venera- 
tion for  the  memory  of  her  husband,  secured  her  the 
same  ascendant  over  the  people  which  he  had  possessed. 
The  prudence  and  vigour  with  which  she  acted  justified 
that  confidence  they  placed  in  her.  She  wrote  to  the 
French  general  in  Navarre,  encouraging  him  to  invade 
Castile  by  the  offer  of  powerful  assistance.  She  endea- 
voured, by  her  letters  and  emissaries,  to  revive  the 
spirit  and  hopes  of  the  other  cities.  She  raised  soldiers, 
and  exacted  a  great  sum  from  the  clergy  belonging  to 
the  cathedral,  in  order  to  defray  the  expense  of  keeping 
them  on  foot.20  She  employed  every  artifice  that  could 
interest  or  inflame  the  populace.  For  this  purpose  she 
ordered  crucifixes  to  be  used  by  her  troops  instead  of 
colours,  as  if  they  had  been  at  war  with  the  infidels  and 
enemies  of  religion ;  she  marched  through  the  streets  of 
Toledo  with  her  son,  a  young  child,  clad  in  deep  mourn- 
ing, seated  on  a  mule,  having  a  standard  carried  before 
him  representing  the  manner  of  his  father's  execution.21 
By  all  these  means  she  kept  the  minds  of  the  people  in 
such  perpetual  agitation  as  prevented  their  passions  from 
subsiding,  and  rendered  them  insensible  of  the  dangers 
to  which  they  were  exposed  by  standing  alone  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  royal  authority.  "While  the  army  was  em- 
ployed in  Navarre,  the  regents  were  unable  to  attempt 
the  reduction  of  Toledo  by  force ;  and  all  their  endea- 
vours, either  to  diminish  Donna  Maria's  credit  with 
the  people,  or  to  gain  her  by  large  promises  and  the 
solicitations  of  her  brother,  the  Marquis  de  Mondeiar, 
proved  ineffectual.  Upon  the  expulsion  of  the  French 
out  of  Navarre,  part  of  the  army  returned  into  Castile 
and  invested  Toledo.  Even  this  made  no  impression 

10  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  727.  J1  Sandoval,  375. 


472  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  IIL 

on  the  intrepid  and  obstinate  courage  of  Donna  Maria. 
She  defended  the  town  with  vigour,  her  troops,  in 
several  sallies,  beat  the  royalists,  and  no  progress  was 
made  towards  reducing  the  place  until  the  clergy,  whom 
she  had  highly  offended  by  invading  their  property, 
ceased  to  support  her.  As  soon  as  they  received  in- 
formation of  the  death  of  William  de  Croy,  archbishop 
of  Toledo,  whose  possession  of  that  see  was  their  chief 
grievance,  and  that  the  emperor  had  named  a  Castilian 
to  succeed  him,  they  openly  turned  against  her,  and  per- 
suaded the  people  that  she  had  acquired  such  influence 
over  them  by  the  force  of  enchantments ;  that  she  was 
assisted  by  a  familiar  demon,  which  attended  her  in  the 
form  of  a  negro  maid;  and  that  by  its  suggestions  she 
regulated  every  part  of  her  conduct.22  The  credulous 
multitude,  whom  their  impatience  of  a  long  blockade, 
and  despair  of  obtaining  succours,  either  from  the  cities 
formerly  in  confederacy  with  them  or  from  the  French, 
rendered  desirous  of  peace,  took  arms  against  her,  and, 
driving  her  out  of  the  city,  surrendered  it  to  the 
royalists.  She  retired  to  the  citadel,  which  she  de- 
fended with  amazing  fortitude  four  months  longer ;  and, 
when  reduced  to  the  last  extremities,  she  made  her 
escape  in  disguise,  and  fled  to  Portugal,  where  she  had 
many  relations.23 

Upon  her  flight,  the  citadel  surrendered.  Tranquil- 
lity was  re-established  in  Castile ;  and  this  bold  attempt 
of  the  commons,  like  all  unsuccessful  insurrections,  con- 
tributed to  confirm  and  extend  the  power  of  the  crown, 
which  it  was  intended  to  moderate  and  abridge.  The 
cortes  still  continued  to  make  a  part  of  the  Castilian  con- 
stitution, and  was  summoned  to  meet  whenever  the  king 
stood  in  need  of  money ;  but  instead  of  adhering  to 
their  ancient  and  cautious  form,  of  examining  and  re- 

12  P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  727. 

M  Sandoval,  375.— P.  Martyr.  Ep.,  754.— Ferreras,  viii.  563. 


BOOK  m.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  473 

dressing  public  grievances  before  they  proceeded  to 
grant  any  supply,  the  more  courtly  custom  of  voting  a 
donative  in  the  first  place  was  introduced,  and  the 
sovereign,  having  obtained  all  that  he  wanted,  never 
allowed  them  to  enter  into  any  inquiry  or  to  attempt 
any  reformation  injurious  to  his  authority.  The  privi- 
leges which  the  cities  had  enjoyed  were  gradually  cir- 
cumscribed or  abolished ;  their  commerce  began  from 
this  period  to  decline ;  and,  becoming  less  wealthy  and 
less  populous,  they  lost  that  power  and  influence  which 
they  had  acquired  in  the  cortes. 

While  Castile  was  exposed  to  the  calamities  of  civil 
war,  the  kingdom  of  Valencia  was  torn  by  intestine 
commotions  still  more  violent.  The  association  which 
had  been  formed  in  the  city  of  Valencia  in  the  year 
1520,  and  which  was  distinguished  by  the  name  of  the 
Germanada,  continued  to  subsist  after  the  emperor's 
departure  from  Spain.  The  members  of  it,  upon  pre- 
text of  defending  the  coasts  against  the  descents  of  the 
corsairs  of  Barbary,  and  under  sanction  of  that  per- 
mission which  Charles  had  rashly  granted  them,  refused 
to  lay  down  their  arms.  But  as  the  grievances  which 
the  Valencians  aimed  at  redressing  proceeded  from  the 
arrogance  and  exactions  of  the  nobility,  rather  than  from 
any  unwarrantable  exercise  of  the  royal  prerogative, 
their  resentment  turned  chiefly  against  the  former.  As 
soon  as  they  were  allowed  the  use  of  arms,  and  became 
conscious  of  their  own  strength,  they  grew  impatient  to 
take  vengeance  on  their  oppressors.  They  drove  the 
nobles  out  of  most  of  the  cities,  plundered  their  houses, 
wasted  their  lands,  and  assaulted  their  castles.  They 
then  proceeded  to  elect  thirteen  persons,  one  from  each 
company  of  tradesmen  established  at  Valencia,  and  com- 
mitted the  administration  of  government  to  them,  under 
pretext  that  they  would  reform  the  laws,  establish  one 
uniform  mode  of  dispensing  justice,  without  partiality 


474  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  ra. 

or  regard  to  the  distinction  of  ranks,  and  thus  restore 
men  to  some  degree  of  their  original  equality. 

The  nobles  were  obliged  to  take  arms  in  self-defence. 
Hostilities  began,  and  were  carried  on  with  all  the  ran- 
cour with  which  resentment  at  oppression  inspired  the 
one  party  and  the  idea  of  insulted  dignity  animated  the 
other.  As  no  person  of  honourable  birth  or  of  liberal 
education  joined  the  Germanada,  the  councils  as  well 
as  troops  of  the  confederacy  were  conducted  by  low 
mechanics,  who  acquired  the  confidence  of  an  enraged 
multitude  chiefly  by  the  fierceness  of  their  zeal  and  the 
extravagance  of  their  proceedings.  Among  such  men, 
the  laws  introduced  in  civilized  nations  in  order  to 
restrain  or  moderate  the  violence  of  war  were  unknown 
or  despised ;  and  they  ran  into  the  wildest  excesses  of 
cruelty  and  outrage. 

The  emperor,  occupied  with  suppressing  the  insur- 
rection in  Castile,  which  more  immediately  threatened 
the  subversion  of  his  power  and  prerogative,  was  unable 
to  give  much  attention  to  the  tumults  in  Valencia,  and 
left  the  nobility  of  that  kingdom  to  fight  their  own 
battles.  His  viceroy,  the  Conde  de  Melito,  had  the 
supreme  command  of  the  forces  which  the  nobles  raised 
among  the  vassals.  The  Germanada  carried  on  the  war 
during  the  years  1520  and  1521  with  a  more  persevering 
courage  than  could  have  been  expected  from  a  body  so 
tumultuary,  under  the  conduct  of  such  leaders.  They 
defeated  the  nobility  in  several  actions,  which,  though 
not  considerable,  were  extremely  sharp.  They  repulsed 
them  in  their  attempts  to  reduce  different  towns.  But 
the  nobles,  by  their  superior  skill  in  war,  and  at  *he 
head  of  troops  more  accustomed  to  service,  gained  the 
advantage  in  most  of  the  rencounters.  At  length  they 
were  joined  by  a  body  of  Castilian  cavalry,  which  the 
regents  despatched  towards  Valencia  soon  after  their 
victory  over  Padilla  at  Villalar,  and  by  their  assistance 


BOOK  in.]          EMPEROR  tfHABLES  THE  FIFTH.  475 

the  Valencian  nobles  acquired  such  superiority  that  they 
entirely  broke  and  ruined  the  Germanada.  The  leaders 
of  the  party  were  put  to  death,  almost  without  any  for- 
mality of  legal  trial,  and  suffered  such  cruel  punishments 
as  the  sense  of  recent  injuries  prompted  their  adversaries 
to  inflict.  The  government  of  Valencia  was  re-esta- 
blished in  its  ancient  form.24 

In  Aragon,  violent  symptoms  of  the  same  spirit  of 
disaffection  and  sedition  which  reigned  in  the  other 
kingdoms  of  Spain  began  to  appear;  but  by  the  prudent 
conduct  of  the  viceroy,  Don  John  de  Lanusa,  they  were 
so  far  composed  as  to  prevent  their  breaking  out  into  any 
open  insurrection.  But  in  the  island  of  Majorca,  an- 
nexed to  the  crown  of  Aragon,  the  same  causes  which 
had  excited  the  commotions  in  Valencia  produced  effects 
no  less  violent.  The  people,  impatient  of  the  hardships 
which  they  had  endured  under  the  rigid  jurisdiction  of 
the  nobility,  took  arms  in  a  tumultuary  manner,  deposed 
their  viceroy,  drove  him  out  of  the  island,  and  massacred 
every  gentleman  who  was  so  unfortunate  as  to  fall  into 
their  hands.  The  obstinacy  with  which  the  people  of 
Majorca  persisted  in  their  rebellion  was  equal  to  the  rage 
with  which  they  began  it.  Many  and  vigorous  efforts 
were  requisite  in  order  to  reduce  them  to  obedience; 
and  tranquillity  was  re-  established  in  every  part  of  Spain 
before  the  Majorcans  could  be  brought  to  submit  to  their 
sovereign.25 

While  the  spirit  of  disaffection  was  so  general  among 
the  Spaniards,  and  so  many  causes  concurred  in  precipi- 
tating them  into  such  violent  measures  in  order  to  obtain 
the  redress  of  their  grievances,  it  may  appear  strange 

14  Argensola,  Anales  de  Aragon,          J5  Argensola,  Anales  de  Aragon, 

cap.    75,    90,    99,    118.  —  Sayas,  c.  113.— Ferreras,  Hist,  viii.  542. 

Anales  de  Aragon,  cap.  5,  12,  etc.  — Sayas,  Anales  de  Aragon,  cap.  7, 

— P.    Martyr.   Ep.,  lib.   xxxiii.    et  11,    14,    76,   81.— Ferreras,    Hist, 

rxxiv.,    passim.  —  Ferreras,    Hist.  d'Espagne,  viii  579,  etc.,  609. 
d'Espagne,  viii.  542,  564,  etc. 


476  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOH  in. 

that  the  malcontents  in  the  different  kingdoms  should 
have  carried  on  their  operations  without  any  mutual 
concert,  or  even  any  intercourse  with  each  other.  By 
uniting  their  councils  and  arms,  they  might  have  acted 
both  with  greater  force  and  with  more  effect.  The 
appearance  of  a  national  confederacy  would  have  ren- 
dered it  no  less  respectable  among  the  people  than  for- 
midable to  the  crown ;  and  the  emperor,  unable  to  resist 
such  a  combination,  must  have  complied  with  any  terms 
which  the  members  of  it  should  have  thought  fit  to  pre- 
scribe. Many  things,  however,  prevented  the  Spaniards 
from  forming  themselves  into  one  body  and  pursuing 
common  measures.  The  people  of  the  different  king- 
doms in  Spain,  though  they  were  become  the  subjects  of 
the  same  sovereign,  retained  in  full  force  their  national 
antipathy  to  each  other.  The  remembrance  of  their 
ancient  rivalship  and  hostilities  was  still  lively,  and  the 
sense  of  reciprocal  injuries  so  strong  as  to  prevent  them 
from  acting  with  confidence  and  concert.  Each  nation 
chose  rather  to  depend  on  its  own  efforts,  and  to  main- 
tain the  struggle  alone,  than  to  implore  the  aid  of  neigh- 
bours whom  they  distrusted  and  hated.  At  the  same 
time,  the  forms  of  government  in  the  several  kingdoms 
3f  Spain  were  so  different,  and  the  grievances  of  which 
they  complained,  as  well  as  the  alterations  and  amend- 
ments in  policy  which  they  attempted  to  introduce,  so 
various,  that  it  was  not  easy  to  bring  them  to  unite  in 
any  common  plan.  To  this  disunion  Charles  was 
indebted  for  the  preservation  of  the  Spanish  crowns ; 
and  while  each  of  the  kingdoms  followed  separate  mea- 
sures, they  were  all  obliged  at  last  to  conform  to  the  will 
of  their  sovereign. 

The  arrival  of  the  emperor  in  Spain  filled  his  subjects 
who  had  been  in  arms  against  him  with  deep  apprehen- 
sions, from  which  he  soon  delivered  them  by  an  act  of 
clemency  no  less  prudent  than  generous.  After  a  rebel- 


HOOK  in.]          EMPLRUR  OUAELES  THE  FIFTH.  477 

lion  so  general,  scarcely  twenty  persons,  among  so  many 
criminals  obnoxious  to  the  law,  had  been  punished 
capitally  in  Castile.  Though  strongly  solicited  by  his 
council,  Charles  refused  to  shed  any  more  blood  by  the 
hands  of  the  executioner,  and  published  a  general  pardon, 
extending  to  all  crimes  committed  since  the  commence- 
ment of  the  insurrections,  from  which  only  fourscore  per- 
sons were  excepted.  Even  these  he  seems  to  have  named 
rather  with  an  intention  to  intimidate  others  than  from  any 
inclination  to  seize  them  ;  for  when  an  officious  courtier 
offered  to  inform  him  where  one  of  the  most  considerable 
among  them  was  concealed,  he  avoided  it  by  a  good- 
natured  pleasantry.  "  Go,"  says  he,  "I  have  now  no 
reason  to  be  afraid  of  that  man,  but  he  has  some  cause 
to  keep  at  a  distance  from  me ;  and  you  would  be  better 
employed  in  telling  him  that  I  am  here,  than  in  acquaint- 
ing me  with  the  place  of  his  retreat."26  By  this  appear- 
ance of  magnanimity,  as  well  as  by  his  care  to  avoid 
everything  which  had  disgusted  the  Castilians  during 
his  former  residence  among  them, — by  his  address  in 
assuming  their  manners,  in  speaking  their  language,  and 
in  complying  with  all  their  humours  and  customs, — he 
acquired  an  ascendant  over  them  which  hardly  any  of 
their  native  monarchs  had  ever  attained,  and  brought 
them  to  support  him  in  all  his  enterprises  with  a  zeal  and 
valour  to  which  he  owed  much  of  his  success  and 
grandeur.87 

About  the  time  that  Charles  landed  in  Spain,  Adrian 
set  out  for  Italy  to  take  possession  of  his  new  dignity. 
But  though  the  Eoman  people  longed  extremely  for  his 
arrival,  they  could  not  on  his  first  appearance  conceal 
their  surprise  and  disappointment.  After  being  accus- 
tomed to  the  princely  magnificence  of  Julius  and  the 
elegant  splendour  of  Leo,  they  beheld  with  contempt 

26  Sandoval,  377,  etc. — Vida  del      Antonio  de  Vera  y  Zufriga,  p.  30. 
Empeiador  Carlos,  por  Don  Juan          2'  Ulloa,  Vita  di  Carlo  V.,p.  85, 


478  "REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  m. 

an  old  man  of  an  humble  deportment,  of  austere  man- 
ners, an  enemy  to  pomp,  destitute  of  taste  in  the  arts, 
and  unadorned  with  any  of  the  external  accomplish- 
ments which  the  vulgar  expect  in  those  raised  to  eminent 
stations.28  Nor  did  his  political  views  and  maxims  seem 
less  strange  and  astonishing  to  the  pontifical  ministers. 
He  acknowledged  and  bewailed  the  corruptions  which 
abounded  in  the  Church,  as  well  as  in  the  court  of 
Rome,  and  prepared  to  reform  both ;  he  discovered 
no  intention  of  aggrandizing  his  family ;  he  even 
scrupled  at  retaining  such  territories  as  some  of  his 
predecessors  had  acquired  by  violence  or  fraud  rather 
than  by  any  legal  title,  and  for  that  reason  he  invested 
Francesco  Maria  de  Rovere  anew  in  the  duchy  of  Urbino, 
of  which  Leo  had  stripped  him,  and  surrendered  to  the 
duke  of  Ferrara  several  places  wrested  from  him  by  the 
Church.29  To  men  little  habituated  to  see  princes  regu- 
late their  conduct  by  the  maxims  of  morality  and  the 
principles  of  justice,  these  actions  of  the  new  pope 
appeared  incontestible  proofs  of  his  weakness  or  inex- 
perience. Adrian,  who  was  a  perfect  stranger  to  the 
complex  and  intricate  system  of  Italian  politics,  and  who 
could  place  no  confidence  in  persons  whose  subtle  refine- 
ments in  business  suited  so  ill  with  the  natural  simplicity 
and  candour  of  his  own  character,  being  often  embar- 
rassed and  irresolute  in  his  deliberations,  the  opinion  of 
his  incapacity  daily  increased,  until  both  his  person  and 
government  became  objects  of  ridicule  among  his 
subjects.30 

Adrian,  though  devoted  to  the  emperor,  endeavoured 
to  assume  the  impartiality  which  became  the  common 
father  of  Christendom,  and  laboured  to  reconcile  the 


38  Guic.,  lib.  xv.  238. —  Jovii  30  Jovii  Vita  Adriani,  118. — P. 

Vita  Adriani,  117. —  Belief  or.  Martyr.  Ep.,  7  7  4. — Ruscelli,  Letteie 

Epistr.  des  Princ.,  8.  de'  Princ.,  voL  i.  87,  96,  101. 

w  Guic.,  lib.  xv.  240. 


BOOK  in.]          EMPEBOR  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  479 

contending  princes,  in  order  that  they  might  unite  in  a 
league  against  Solyman,  whose  conquest  of  Rhodes 
rendered  him  more  formidable  than  ever  to  Europe.31 
But  this  was  an  undertaking  far  beyond  his  abilities. 
To  examine  such  a  variety  of  pretensions,  to  adjust  such 
a  number  of  interfering  interests,  to  extinguish  the 
passions  which  ambition,  emulation,  and  mutual  injuries 
had  kindled,  to  bring  so  many  hostile  powers  to  pursue 
the  same  scheme  with  unanimity  and  vigour,  required 
not  only  uprightness  of  intention,  but  great  superiority 
both  of  understanding  and  address. 

The  Italian  states  were  no  less  desirous  of  peace  than 
the  pope.  The  imperial  army  under  Colonna  was  still 
kept  on  foot ;  but  as  the  emperor's  revenues  in  Spain, 
in  Naples,  and  in  the  Low  Countries  were  either  ex- 
hausted or  applied  to  some  other  purpose,  it  depended 
entirely  for  pay  and  subsistence  on  the  Italians.  A 
great  part  of  it  was  quartered  in  the  ecclesiastical  state, 
and  monthly  contributions  were  levied  upon  the  Flo- 
rentines, the  Milanese,  the  Genoese,  and  Lucchese,  by 
the  viceroy  of  Naples  ;  and,  though  all  exclaimed  against 
such  oppression,  and  were  impatient  to  be  delivered 
from  it,  the  dread  of  worse  consequences  from  the  rage 
of  the  army  or  the  resentment  of  the  emperor  obliged 
them  to  submit.32 

So  much  regard,  however,  was  paid  to  the  pope's  ex- 
hortations, and  to  a  bull  which  he  issued,  requiring  all 
Christian  princes  to  consent  to  a  truce  for  three  years, 
that  the  imperial,  the  French,  and  English  ambassadors 
at  Eome  were  empowered  by  their  respective  courts  to 
treat  of  that  matter ;  but,  while  they  wasted  their  time 
in  fruitless  negotiations,  their  masters  continued  their 
preparations  for  war.  The  Venetians,  who  had  hitherto 
adhered  with  great  firmness  to  their  alliance  with 
Francis,  being  now  convinced  that  his  affairs  in  Italy 

11  BolMor.  Epistr.,  p.  86.  »  Guic.,  lib.  xv.  238. 


480  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  in. 

were  in  a  desperate  situation,  entered  into  a  league 
against  him  with  the  emperor ;  to  which  Adrian,  at  the 
instigation  of  his  countryman  and  friend,  Charles  de 
Lannoy,  viceroy  of  Naples,  who  persuaded  him  that  the 
only  obstacles  to  peace  arose  from  the  ambition  of  the 
French  king,  soon  after  acceded.  The  other  Italian 
states  followed  their  example;  and  Francis  was  left 
without  a  single  ally  to  resist  the  efforts  of  so  many 
enemies,  whose  armies  threatened  and  whose  territories 
encompassed  his  dominions  on  every  side.33 

The  dread  of  this  powerful  confederacy,  it  was  thought, 
would  have  obliged  Francis  to  keep  wholly  on  the  de- 
fensive, or  at  least  have  prevented  his  entertaining  any 
thoughts  of  marching  into  Italy.  But  it  was  the  char- 
acter of  that  prince,  too  apt  to  become  remiss  and  even 
negligent  on  ordinary  occasions,  to  rouse  at  the  approach 
of  danger,  and  not  only  to  encounter  it  with  spirit  and 
intrepidity,  qualities  which  never  forsook  him,  but  to 
provide  against  it  with  diligence  and  industry.  Before 
his  enemies  were  ready  to  execute  any  of  their  schemes, 
Francis  had  assembled  a  numerous  army.  His  authority 
over  his  own  subjects  was  far  greater  than  that  which 
Charles  or  Henry  possessed  over  theirs.  They  depended 
on  their  diets,  their  cortes,  and  their  parliaments  for 
money,  which  was  usually  granted  them  in  small  sums, 
very  slowly,  and  with  much  reluctance.  The  taxes  he 
could  impose  were  more  considerable,  and  levied  with 
greater  despatch ;  so  that  on  this  as  well  as  on  other 
occasions  he  brought  his  armies  into  the  field  while  they 
were  only  devising  ways  and  means  for  raising  theirs. 
Sensible  of  this  advantage,  Francis  hoped  to  disconcert 
all  the  emperor's  schemes  by  marching  in  person  into 
the  Milanese ;  and  this  bold  measure,  the  more  formid- 
able because  unexpected,  could  scarcely  have  failed  of 
producing  that  effect.  But  when  the  vanguard  of  his 

"  Guic.,  lib.  xv.  241,  246. 


BOOK  in.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  481 

army  had  already  reached  Lyons,  and  he  himself  was 
hastening  after  it  with  a  second  division  of  his  troops, 
the  discovery  of  a  domestic  conspiracy,  which  threatened 
the  ruin  of  the  kingdom,  obliged  him  to  stop  short  and 
to  alter  his  measures. 

The  author  of  this  dangerous  plot  was  Charles,  duke 
of  Bourbon,  lord  high  constable,  whose  noble  birth, 
vast  fortune,  and  high  office  raised  him  to  be  the  most 
powerful  subject  in  France,  as  his  great  talents,  equally 
suited  to  the  field  or  the  council,  and  his  signal  services 
to  the  crown,  rendered  him  the  most  illustrious  and 
deserving.  The  near  resemblance  between  the  king  and 
him  in  many  of  their  qualities,  both  being  fond  of  war 
and  ambitious  to  excel  in  manly  exercises,  as  well  as 
their  equality  in  age  and  their  proximity  of  blood, 
ought  naturally  to  have  secured  to  him  a  considerable 
share  in  that  monarch's  favour.  But  unhappily  Louise, 
the  king's  mother,  had  contracted  a  violent  aversion 
to  the  house  of  Bourbon,  for  no  better  reason  than 
because  Anne  of  Bretagne,  the  queen  of  Louis  XII., 
with  whom  she  lived  in  perpetual  enmity,  had  dis- 
covered a  peculiar  attachment  to  that  branch  of  the 
royal  family,  and  had  taught  her  son,  who  was  too  sus- 
ceptible of  any  impression  which  his  mother  gave  him, 
to  view  all  the  constable's  actions  with  a  mean  and 
unbecoming  jealousy.  His  distinguished  merit  at  the 
battle  of  Marignano  had  not  been  sufficiently  rewarded ; 
he  had  been  recalled  from  the  government  of  Milan 
upon  very  frivolous  pretences,  and  had  met  with  a  cold 
reception,  which  his  prudent  conduct  in  that  difficult 
station  did  not  deserve  ;  the  payment  of  his  pensions  had 
been  suspended  without  any  good  cause;  and  during 
the  campaign  of  1521  the  king,  as  has  already  been 
related,  had  affronted  him  in  presence  of  the  whole 
army,  by  giving  the  command  of  the  van  to  the  duke  of 
Alen<jon.  The  constable,  at  first,  bore  these  indignities 


482  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  in. 

with  greater  moderation  than  could  have  been  expected 
from  a  high-spirited  prince,  conscious  of  what  was  due 
to  his  rank  and  to  his  services.  Such  a  multiplicity  of 
injuries,  however,  exhausted  his  patience ;  and,  in- 
spiring him  with  thoughts  of  revenge,  he  retired  from 
court,  and  began  to  hold  a  secret  correspondence  with 
some  of  the  emperor's  ministers. 

About  that  time  the  duchess  of  Bourbon  happened 
to  die  without  leaving  any  children.  Louise,  of  a  dis- 
position no  less  amorous  than  vindictive,  and  still  sus- 
ceptible of  the  tender  passions  at  the  age  of  forty-six, 
began  to  view  the  constable,  a  prince  as  amiable  as  he 
was  accomplished,  with  other  eyes ;  and,  notwithstand- 
ing the  great  disparity  of  their  years,  she  formed  the 
scheme  of  marrying  him.  Bourbon,  who  might  have 
expected  every  thing  to  which  an  ambitious  mind  can 
aspire  from  the  doting  fondness  of  a  woman  who  governed 
her  son  and  the  kingdom,  being  incapable  either  of 
imitating  the  queen  in  her  sudden  transition  from  hatred 
to  love,  or  of  dissembling  so  meanly  as  to  pretend 
affection  for  one  who  had  persecuted  him  so  long  with 
unprovoked  malice,  not  only  rejected  the  match,  but 
embittered  his  refusal  by  some  severe  raillery  on  Louise's 
person  and  character.  She  finding  herself  not  only 
contemned  but  insulted,  her  disappointed  love  turned 
into  hatred,  and,  since  she  could  not  marry,  she  resolved 
to  ruin  Bourbon. 

For  this  purpose,  she  consulted  with  the  chancellor, 
Ihi  Prat,  a  man  who  by  a  base  prostitution  of  great 
talents  and  of  superior  skill  in  his  profession  had  risen 
to  that  high  office.  By  his  advice  a  lawsuit  was  com- 
menced against  the  constable  for  the  whole  estate  belong- 
ing to  the  house  of  Bourbon.  Part  of  it  was  claimed 
in  the  king's  name,  as  having  fallen  to  the  crown ; 
part  in  that  of  Louise,  as  the  nearest  heir  in  blood  of 
the  deceased  duchess.  Both  of  these  claims  were  equally 


BOOK  ra.]          EMPEEOE  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  483 

destitute  of  any  foundation  in  justice ;  but  Louise,  by  her 
solicitations  and  authority,  and  Du  Prat,  by  employing 
all  the  artifices  and  chicanery  of  law,  prevailed  on  the 
judges  to  order  the  estate  to  be  sequestered.  This 
unjust  decision  drove  the  constable  to  despair,  and  to 
measures  which  despair  alone  could  have  dictated.  He 
renewed  his  intrigues  in  the  imperial  court,  and,  nat- 
tering himself  that  the  injuries  which  he  had  suffered 
would  justify  his  having  recourse  to  any  means  in  order 
to  obtain  revenge,  he  offered  to  transfer  his  allegiance 
from  his  natural  sovereign  to  the  emperor,  and  to 
assist  him  in  the  conquest  of  France.  Charles,  as  well 
as  the  king  of  England,  to  whom  the  secret  was  com- 
municated,34 expecting  prodigious  advantages  from  his 
revolt,  were  rea'dy  to  receive  him  with  open  arms,  and 
spared  neither  promises  nor  allurements  which  might 
help  to  confirm  him  in  his  resolution.  The  emperor 
offered  him  in  marriage  his  sister  Eleanor,  the  widow 
of  the  king  of  Portugal,  with  an  ample  portion.  He 
was  included  as  a  principal  in  the  treaty  between  Charles 
and  Henry.  The  counties  of  Provence  and  Dauphine* 
were  to  be  settled  on  him,  with  the  title  of  king.  The 
emperor  engaged  to  enter  France  by  the  Pyrenees,  and 
Henry,  supported  by  the  Flemings,  to  invade  Picardy ; 
while  twelve  thousand  Germans,  levied  at  their  com- 
mon charge,  were  to  penetrate  into  Burgundy  and  to 
act  in  concert  with  Bourbon,  who  undertook  to  raise 
six  thousand  men  among  his  friends  and  vassals  in  the 
heart  of  the  kingdom.  The  execution  of  this  deep-laid 
and  dangerous  plot  was  suspended  until  the  king  should 
cross  the  Alps  with  the  only  army  capable  of  defending 
his  dominions ;  and,  as  he  was  far  advanced  in  his 
march  for  that  purpose,  France  was  on  the  brink  of 
destruction.35 

M  Rymer's  Fcedera.,  xiii.  794.  Heuter.  Rer.  Austr.,  lib.  viii  c.  18, 

w  Thuani  Hist,  lib.  L  c.  10. —     p.  207. 

I  I  2 


484  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK   in. 

Happily  for  that  kingdom,  a  negotiation  which  had 
now  been  carrying  on  for  several  months,  though 
conducted  with  the  most  profound  secrecy,  and  com- 
municated only  to  a  few  chosen  confidants,  could  not 
altogether  escape  the  observation  of  the  rest  of  the 
constable's  numerous  retainers,  rendered  more  inquisi- 
tive by  finding  that  they  were  distrusted.  Two  of 
these  gave  the  king  some  intimation  of  a  mysterious 
correspondence  between  their  master  and  the  Count  de 
Eoeux,  a  Flemish  nobleman  of  great  confidence  with 
the  emperor.  Francis,  who  could  not  bring  himself  to 
suspect  that  the  first  prince  of  the  blood  would  be  so 
base  as  to  betray  the  kingdom  to  its  enemies,  imme- 
diately repaired  to  Moulins,  where  the  constable  was 
in  bed,  feigning  indisposition,  that  he  might  not  be 
obliged  to  accompany  the  king  into  Italy,  and  ac- 
quainted him  of  the  intelligence  which  he  had  received. 
Bourbon,  with  great  solemnity,  and  the  most  imposing 
affectation  of  ingenuity  and  candour,  asserted  his  own 
innocence;  and  as  his  health,  he  said,  was  now  more 
confirmed,  he  promised  to  join  the  army  within  a  few 
days.  Francis,  open  and  candid  himself,  and  too  apt 
to  be  deceived  by  the  appearance  of  those  virtues  in 
others,  gave  such  credit  to  what  he  said  that  he  refused 
to  arrest  him,  although  advised  to  take  that  precaution 
by  his  wisest  counsellors;  and,  as  if  the  danger  had 
been  over,  he  continued  his  march  towards  Lyons. 
The  constable  set  out  soon  after,  seemingly  with  an 
intention  to  follow  him ;  but,  turning  suddenly  to  the 
left,  he  crossed  the  Ehone,  and,  after  infinite  fatigue 
and  peril,  escaped  all  the  parties  which  the  king,  who 
became  sensible  too  late  of  his  own  credulity,  sent  out 
to  intercept  him,  and  reached  Italy  in  safety.36 

Francis  took  every  possible  precaution  to  prevent  the 

88  Me'm.  de  Bellay,  p.  64,   etc. — Pasquier.   Eecherches  de  la  France, 
p.  481 


BOOK  m.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  485 

bad  effects  of  the  irreparable  error  which  he  had  com- 
mitted. He  put  garrisons  in  all  the  places  of  strength 
in  the  constable's  territories.  He  seized  all  the  gentle- 
men whom  he  could  suspect  of  being  his  associates  ;  and 
as  he  had  not  hitherto  discovered  the  whole  extent  of 
the  conspirators'  schemes,  nor  knew  how  far  the  infec- 
tion had  spread  among  his  subjects,  he  was  afraid  that 
his  absence  might  encourage  them  to  make  some  desperate 
attempt,  and  for  that  reason  relinquished  his  intention 
of  leading  his  army  in  person  into  Italy. 

He  did  not,  however,  abandon  his  design  on  the 
Milanese,  but  appointed  Admiral  Bonnivet  to  take  the 
supreme  command  in  his  stead,  and  to  march  into  that 
country  with  an  army  thirty  thousand  strong.  Bonnivet 
did  not  owe  this  preferment  to  his  abilities  as  a  general ; 
for,  of  all  the  talents  requisite  to  form  a  great  com- 
mander, he  possessed  only  personal  courage,  the  lowest 
and  the  most  common.  But  he  was  the  most  accom- 
plished gentleman  in  the  French  court,  of  agreeable 
manners  and  insinuating  address  and  a  sprightly  con 
versation ;  and  Francis,  who  lived  in  great  familiarity 
with  his  courtiers,  was  so  charmed  with  these  qualities 
that  he  honoured  him  on  all  occasions  with  the  most 
partial  and  distinguished  marks  of  his  favour.  He  was, 
besides,  the  implacable  enemy  of  Bourbon ;  and,  as  the 
king  hardly  knew  whom  to  trust  at  that  juncture,  he 
thought  the  chief  command  could  be  lodged  nowhere  so 
safely  as  in  his  hands. 

Colonna,  who  was  intrusted  with  the  defence  of  the 
Milanese,  his  own  conquest,  was  in  no  condition  to 
resist  such  a  formidable  army.  He  was  destitute  of 
money  sufficient  to  pay  his  troops,  which  were  reduced 
to  a  small  number  by  sickness  or  desertion,  and  had, 
for  that  reason,  been  obliged  to  neglect  every  precau- 
tion necessary  for  the  security  of  the  country.  The 
only  plan  which  he  formed  was,  to  defend  the  passage 


486  &E1GN  OF  THE  [BOOK  itt. 

of  the  river  Tessino  against  the  French ;  and,  as  if  he 
had  forgotten  how  easily  he  himself  had  disconcerted 
a  similar  scheme  formed  by  Lautrec,  he  promised  with 
great  confidence  on  its  being  effectual.  But,  in  spite 
of  all  his  caution,  it  succeeded  no  better  with  him  than 
with  Lautrec.  Bonnivet  passed  the  river  without  loss, 
at  a  ford  which  had  been  neglected,  and  the  imperialists 
retired  to  Milan,  preparing  to  abandon  the  town  as  soon 
as  the  French  should  appear  before  it.  By  an  unac- 
countable negligence,  which  Guicciardini  imputes  to 
infatuation,37  Bonnivet  did  not  advance  for  three  or  four 
days,  and  lost  the  opportunity  with  which  his  guod 
fortune  presented  him.  The  citizens  recovered  from 
their  consternation ;  Colonna,  still  active  at  the  age  of 
fourscore,  and  Morone,  whose  enmity  to  France  rendered 
him  indefatigable,  were  employed  night  and  day  in 
repairing  the  fortifications,  in  amassing  provisions,  in 
collecting  troops  from  every  quarter,  and,  by  the  time 
the  French  approached,  had  put  the  city  in  a  condition 
to  stand  a  siege.  Bonnivet,  after  some  fruitless  attempts 
on  the  town,  which  harassed  his  own  troops  more  than 
the  enemy,  was  obliged,  by  the  inclemency  of  the  season, 
to  retire  into  winter  quarters. 

During  these  transactions,  Pope  Adrian  died, — an 
event  so  much  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Eoman  people, 
whose  hatred  or  contempt  of  him  augmented  every 
day,  that  the  night  after  his  decease  they  adorned  the 
door  of  his  chief  physician's  house  with  garlands, 
adding  this  inscription,  To  THE  DELIVERER  OF  HIS 
COUNTRY.38  The  Cardinal  de'  Medici  instantly  renewed 
his  pretensions  to  the  papal  dignity,  and  entered  the 
conclave  with  high  expectations  on  his  own  part,  and 
a  general  opinion  of  the  people,  that  they  would  be 
successful.  But,  though  supported  by  the  imperial 
faction,  possessed  of  great  personal  interest,  and  capable 

37  Guic.,  lib.  xv.  254.  38  Jovii  Vit.  Adr.,  127. 


BOOK  in.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  487 

of  all  the  artifices,  refinements,  and  corruption  whicli 
reign  in  those  assemblies,  the  obstinacy  and  intrigues  of 
his  rivals  protracted  the  conclave  to  the  unusual  length 
of  fifty  days.  The  address  and  perseverance  of  the 
cardinal  at  last  surmounted  every  obstacle.  He  was 
raised  to  the  head  of  the  Church,  and  assumed  the 
government  of  it  by  the  name  of  Clement  VII.  The 
choice  was  universally  approved  of.  High  expectations 
were  conceived  of  a  pope  whose  great  talents  and  long 
experience  in  business  seemed  to  qualify  him  no  less 
for  defending  the  spiritual  interests  of  the  Church,  ex- 
posed to  imminent  danger  by  the  progress  of  Luther's 
opinions,  than  for  conducting  its  political  operations 
with  the  prudence  requisite  at  such  a  difficult  juncture, 
and  who,  besides  these  advantages,  rendered  the  ecclesi- 
astical state  more  respectable  by  having  in  his  hands 
the  government  of  Florence,  together  with  the  wealth  of 
the  family  of  Medici.39 

Cardinal  Wolsey,  not  disheartened  by  the  disappoint- 
ment of  his  ambitious  views  at  the  former  election,  had 
entertained  more  sanguine  hopes  of  success  on  this  oc- 
casion. Henry  wrote  to  the  emperor,  reminding  him 
of  his  engagements  to  second  the  pretensions  of  his 
minister.  Wolsey  bestirred  himself  with  activity  suit- 
able to  the  importance  of  the  prize  for  which  he  con- 
tended, and  instructed  his  agents  at  Rome  to  spare 
neither  promises  nor  bribes  in  order  to  gain  his  end. 
But  Charles  had  either  amused  him  with  vain  hopes 
which  he  never  intended  to  gratify,  or  he  judged 
it  impolitic  to  oppose  a  candidate  who  had  such  a 
prospect  of  succeeding  as  Medici ;  or  perhaps  the 
cardinals  durst  not  venture  to  provoke  the  people 
of  Eome,  while  their  indignation  against  Adrian's 
memory  was  still  fresh,  by  placing  another  Ultra- 
montane on  the  papal  throne.  Wolsey,  after  all  his 

39  Guic.,  lib.  xv.  263. 


488  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  m. 

expectations  and  endeavours,  had  the  mortification  to 
see  a  pope  elected  of  such  an  age  and  of  so  vigorous 
a  constitution  that  he  could  not  derive  much  comfort 
to  himself  from  the  chance  of  surviving  him.  This 
second  proof  fully  convinced  Wolsey  of  the  emperor's 
insincerity,  and  it  excited  in  him  all  the  resentment 
which  a  haughty  mind  feels  on  being  at  once  disap- 
pointed and  deceived ;  and  though  Clement  endeavoured 
to  soothe  his  vindictive  nature  by  granting  him  a  com- 
mission to  be  legate  in  England  during  life,  with  such 
ample  powers  as  vested  in  him  almost  the  whole  papal 
jurisdiction  in  that  kingdom,  the  injury  he  had  now 
received  made  such  an  impression  as  entirely  dissolved 
the  tie  which  had  united  him  to  Charles,  and  from 
that  moment  he  meditated  revenge.  It  was  necessary, 
however,  to  conceal  his  intention  from  his  master,  and 
to  suspend  the  execution  of  it  until,  by  a  dexterous 
improvement  of  the  incidents  which  might  occur,  he 
should  be  able  gradually  to  alienate  the  king's  affections 
from  the  emperor.  For  this  reason,  he  was  so  far  from 
expressing  any  uneasiness  on  account  of  the  repulse 
which  he  had  met  with,  that  he  abounded  on  every 
occasion,  private  as  well  as  public,  in  declarations  of 
his  high  satisfaction  with  Clement's  promotion.40 

Henry  had,  during  the  campaign,  fulfilled  with  great 
sincerity  whatever  he  was  bound  to  perform  by  the 
league  against  France,  though  more  slowly  than  he 
could  have  wished.  His  thoughtless  profusion  and 
total  neglect  of  economy  reduced  him  often  to  great 
straits  for  money.  The  operations  of  war  were  now 
carried  on  in  Europe  in  a  manner  very  different  from 
that  which  had  long  prevailed.  Instead  of  armies 
suddenly  assembled,  which  under  distinct  chieftains 
followed  their  prince  into  the  field  for  a  short  space 
and  served  at  their  own  cost,  troops  were  now  levied  at 

40  Fiddes's  Life  of  Wolsey,  294,  etc.— Herbert. 


BOOH  in.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  489 

great  charge  and  received  regularly  considerable  pay. 
Instead  of  impatience  on  both  sides  to  bring  every 
quarrel  to  the  issue  of  a  battle,  which  commonly  de- 
cided the  fate  of  open  countries,  and  allowed  the 
barons,  together  with  their  vassals,  to  return  to  their 
ordinary  occupations,  towns  were  fortified  with  great 
art  and  defended  with  much  obstinacy ;  war,  from  a 
very  simple,  became  a  very  intricate  science ;  and 
campaigns  grew,  of  course,  to  be  more  tedious  and  less 
decisive.  The  expense  which  these  alterations  in  the 
military  system  necessarily  created  appeared  intoler- 
able to  nations  hitherto  unaccustomed  to  the  burden 
of  heavy  taxes.  Hence  proceeded  the  frugal  and  even 
parsimonious  spirit  of  the  English  parliaments  in  that 
age,  which  Henry,  with  all  his  authority,  was  seldom 
able  to  overcome.  The  commons  having  refused  at 
this  time  to  grant  him  the  supplies  which  he  demanded, 
he  had  recourse  to  the  ample  and  almost  unlimited 
prerogative  which  the  kings  of  England  then  possessed, 
and,  by  a  violent  and  unusual  exertion  of  it,  raised  the 
money  he  wanted.  This,  however,  wasted  so  much 
time  that  it  was  late  in  the  season  before  his  army, 
under  the  duke  of  Suffolk,  could  take  the  field.  Being 
joined  by  a  considerable  body  of  Flemings,  Suffolk 
marched  into  Picardy,  and  Francis,  from  his  extrava- 
gant eagerness  to  recover  the  Milanese,  having  left  that 
frontier  almost  unguarded,  he  penetrated  as  far  as  the 
banks  of  the  river  Oyse,  within  eleven  leagues  of  Paris, 
filling  that  capital  with  consternation.  But  the  arrival 
of  some  troops  detached  by  the  king,  who  was  still  at 
Lyons,  the  active  gallantry  of  the  French  officers,  who 
allowed  the  allies  no  respite  night  or  day,  the  rigour  of 
a  most  unnatural  season,  together  with  scarcity  of  pro- 
visions, compelled  Suffolk  to  retire ;  and  La  Tramouille, 
who  commanded  in  those  parts,  had  the  glory  not  only 
of  having  checked  the  progress  of  a  formidable  army 


490  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  IIL 

with  a  handful  of  men,  but  of  driving  them  with  igno- 
miny out  of  the  French  territories.41 

The  emperor's  attempts  upon  Burgundy  and  Guienne 
were  not  more  fortunate,  though  in  both  these  provinces 
Francis  was  equally  ill  prepared  to  resist  them.  The 
conduct  and  valour  of  his  generals  supplied  his  want  of 
foresight ;  the  Germans,  who  made  an  irruption  into 
one  of  these  provinces,  and  the  Spaniards,  who  attacked 
the  other,  were  repulsed  with  great  disgrace. 

Thus  ended  the  year  1523,  during  which  Francis's 
good  fortune  and  success  had  been  such  as  gave  all 
Europe  a  high  idea  of  his  power  and  resources.  He 
had  discovered  and  disconcerted  a  dangerous  con- 
spiracy, the  author  of  which  he  had  driven  into  exile 
almost  without  an  attendant ;  he  had  rendered  abortive 
all  the  schemes  of  the  powerful  confederacy  formed 
against  him  ;  he  had  protected  his  dominions  when 
attacked  on  three  different  sides ;  and,  though  his  army 
in  the  Milanese  had  not  made  such  progress  as  might 
have  been  expected  from  its  superiority  to  the  enemy 
in  number,  he  had  recovered,  and  still  kept  possession 
of,  one-half  of  that  duchy. 

The  ensuing  year  opened  with  events  more  disas- 
trous to  France.  Fontarabia  was  lost  by  the  cowardice 
or  treachery  of  its  governor.  In  Italy,  the  allies  re- 
solved on  an  early  and  vigorous  effort,  in  order  to  dis- 
possess Bonnivet  of  that  part  of  the  Milanese  which 
lies  beyond  the  Tessino.  Clement,  who,  under  the 
pontificates  of  Leo  and  Adrian,  had  discovered  an 
implacable  enmity  to  France,  began  now  to  view  the 
power  which  the  emperor  was  daily  acquiring  in  Italy 
with  so  much  jealousy  that  he  refused  to  accede, 
as  his  predecessors  had  done,  to  the  league  against 
Francis,  and,  forgetting  private  passions  and  animosi- 
ties, laboured  with  the  zeal  which  became  his  character 

41  Herbert,  Mrim.  de  Bellay,  73,  etc. 


in.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  491 

to  bring  about  a  reconciliation  among  the  contending 
parties.  But  all  his  endeavours  were  ineffectual :  a 
numerous  army,  to  which  each  of  the  allies  furnished 
their  contingent  of  troops,  was  assembled  at  Milan  by 
the  beginning  of  March.  Lannoy,  viceroy  of  Naples, 
took  the  command  of  it  upon  Colonna's  death,  though 
the  chief  direction  of  military  operations  was  com- 
mitted to  Bourbon  and  the  marquis  de  Pescara,  the 
latter  the  ablest  and  most  enterprising  of  the  imperial 
generals ;  the  former  inspired  by  his  resentment  with 
new  activity  and  invention,  and  acquainted  so  thoroughly 
with  the  characters  of  the  French  commanders,  the 
genius  of  their  troops,  and  the  strength  as  well  as 
weakness  of  their  armies,  as  to  be  of  infinite  service  to 
the  party  which  he  had  joined.  But  all  these  advan- 
tages were  nearly  lost  through  the  emperor's  inability 
to  raise  money  sufficient  for  executing  the  various  and 
extensive  plans  which  he  had  formed.  When  his  troops 
were  commanded  to  march,  they  mutinied  against  their 
leaders,  demanding  the  pay  which  was  due  to  them  for 
some  months,  and,  disregarding  both  the  menaces  and 
entreaties  of  their  officers,  threatened  to  pillage  the 
city  of  Milan  if  they  did  not  instantly  receive  satisfac- 
tion. Out  of  this  difficulty  the  generals  of  the  allies 
were  extricated  by  Morone,  who,  prevailing  on  his 
countrymen,  over  whom  his  influence  was  prodigious, 
to  advance  the  sum  that  was  requisite,  the  army  took  the 
field.42 

Bonnivet  was  destitute  of  troops  to  oppose  this  army, 
and  still  more  of  the  talents  which  could  render 
him  an  equal  match  for  its  leaders.  After  various 
movements  and  encounters,  described  with  great  accu- 
racy by  the  contemporary  historians,  a  detail  of  which 
would  now  be  equally  uninteresting  and  uninstructive, 
he  was  forced  to  abandon  the  strong  camp  in  which 

42  Guic.,  lib.  xv   267.— Capella,  190. 


492  KEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOR  m. 

he  had  intrenched  himself  at  Biagrassa.  Soon  after, 
partly  by  his  own  misconduct,  partly  by  the  activity 
of  the  enemy,  who  harassed  and  ruined  his  army  by 
continual  skirmishes,  while  they  carefully  declined  a 
battle,  which  he  often  offered  them,  and  partly  by  the 
caprice  of  six  thousand  Swiss,  who  refused  to  join  his 
army,  though  within  a  day's  march  of  it,  he  was  re- 
duced to  the  necessity  of  attempting  a  retreat  into 
France  through  the  valley  of  Aost.  Just  as  he  arrived 
on  the  banks  of  the  Sessia,  and  began  to  pass  that 
river,  Bourbon  and  Pescara  appeared  with  the  van- 
guard of  the  allies,  and  attacked  his  rear  with  great 
fury.  At  the  beginning  of  the  charge,  Bonnivet,  while 
exerting  himself  with  much  valour,  was  wounded  so 
dangerously  that  he  was  obliged  to  quit  the  field  ;  and 
the  conduct  of  the  rear  was  committed  to  the  Chevalier 
Bayard,  who,  though  so  much  a  stranger  to  the  arts  of 
a  court  that  he  never  rose  to  the  chief  command,  was 
always  called,  in  times  of  real  danger,  to  the  post  of 
greatest  difficulty  and  importance.  He  put  himself  at 
the  head  of  the  men-at-arms,  and,  animating  them  by 
his  presence  and  example  to  sustain  the  whole  shock 
of  the  enemy's  troops,  he  gained  time  for  the  rest  of 
his  countrymen  to  make  good  their  retreat.  But  in 
this  service  he  received  a  wound  which  he  immediately 
perceived  to  be  mortal,  and,  being  unable  to  continue 
any  longer  on  horseback,  he  ordered  one  of  his  atten- 
dants to  place  him  under  a  tree,  with  his  face  towards 
the  enemy  ;  then,  fixing  his  eyes  on  the  guard  of 
his  sword,  which  he  held  up  instead  of  a  cross,  he 
addressed  his  prayers  to  God,  and  in  this  posture, 
which  became  his  character  both  as  a  soldier  and  as  a 
Christian,  he  calmly  awaited  the  approach  of  death. 
Bourbon,  who  led  the  foremost  of  the  enemy's  troops, 
found  him  in  this  situation,  and  expressed  regret  and 
pity  at  the  sight.  "  Pity  not  me,"  cried  the  high- 


BOOK  ra.]          EMPEEOE  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  493 

spirited  chevalier.  "  I  die  as  a  man  of  honour  ought, 
in  the  discharge  of  my  duty :  they  indeed  are  objects 
of  pity  who  fight  against  their  king,  their  country,  and 
their  oath."  The  marquis  de  Pescara,  passing  soon 
after,  manifested  his  admiration  of  Bayard's  virtues, 
as  well  as  his  sorrow  for  his  fate,  with  the  generosity 
of  a  gallant  enemy,  and,  finding  that  he  could  not  be 
removed  with  safety  from  that  spot,  ordered  a  tent 
to  be  pitched  there,  and  appointed  proper  persons  to 
attend  him.  .He  died,  notwithstanding  their  care,  as 
his  ancestors  for  several  generations  had  done,  in  the 
field  of  battle.  Pescara  ordered  his  body  to  be  em- 
balmed and  sent  to  his  relations ;  and  such  was  the 
respect  paid  to  military  merit  in  that  age  that  the  duke 
of  Savoy  commanded  it  to  be  received  with  royal  honours 
in  all  the  cities  of  his  dominions :  in  Dauphin^,  Bayard's 
native  country,  the  people  of  all  ranks  came  out  in  a 
solemn  procession  to  meet  it.43 

Bonnivet  led  back  the  shattered  remains  of  his  army 
into  France ;  and  in  one  short  campaign  Francis  was 
stripped  of  all  he  had  possessed  in  Italy,  and  left  without 
one  ally  in  that  country. 

While  the  war  kindled  by  the  emulation  of  Charles 
and  Francis  spread  over  so  many  countries  of  Europe, 
Germany  enjoyed  a  profound  tranquillity,  extremely 
favourable  to  the  Reformation,  which  continued  to  make 
progress  daily.  During  Luther's  confinement  in  his 
retreat  at  Wartburg,  Carlostadius,  one  of  his  disciples, 
animated  with  the  same  zeal,  but  possessed  of  less  pru- 
dence and  moderation  than  his  master,  began  to  propa- 
gate wild  and  dangerous  opinions,  chiefly  among  the 
lower  people.  Encouraged  by  his  exhortations,  they 
rose  in  several  villages  of  Saxony,  broke  into  the 
churches  with  tumultuary  violence,  and  threw  down 

3  Bellefor.  Epistr.,  p.  73. —  Brant.,  torn.  vi.  p.  108,  etc. — Pa* 
Mem.  de  Bellay,  76. — -((Euv.  de  quier,  Recherches,  p.  526. 


494  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  in. 

and  destroyed  the  images  with  which  they  were 
adorned.  Those  irregular  and  outrageous  proceedings 
were  so  repugnant  to  all  the  elector's  cautious  maxims, 
that  if  they  had  not  received  a  timely  check  they 
could  hardly  have  failed  of  alienating  from  the  Ee- 
formers  a  prince  no  less  jealous  of  his  own  authority 
than  afraid  of  giving  offence  to  the  emperor  and  other 
patrons  of  the  ancient  opinions.  Luther,  sensible  of 
the  danger,  immediately  quitted  his  retreat,  without 
waiting  for  Frederic's  permission,  and  returned  to  Wit- 
temberg.  Happily  for  the  Eeformation,  the  veneration 
for  his  person  and  authority  was  still  so  great  that  his 
appearance  alone  suppressed  that  spirit  of  extravagance 
which  began  to  seize  his  party.  Carlostadius  and  his 
fanatical  followers,  struck  dumb  by  his  rebukes,  sub- 
mitted at  once,  and  declared  that  they  heard  the  voice  of 
an  angel,  not  of  a  man.44  [1522.] 

Before  Luther  left  his  retreat,  he  had  begun  to  trans- 
late the  Bible  into  the  German  tongue,  an  undertaking 
of  no  less  difficulty  than  importance,  of  which  he  was 
extremely  fond,  and  for  which  he  was  well  qualified. 
He  had  a  competent  knowledge  of  the  original  lan- 
guages ;  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  style  and 
sentiments  of  the  inspired  writers ;  and,  though  his 
compositions  in  Latin  were  rude  and  barbarous,  he  was 
reckoned  a  great  master  of  the  purity  of  his  mother- 
tongue,  and  could  express  himself  with  all  the  elegance 
of  which  it  is  capable.  By  his  own  assiduous  applica- 
tion, together  with  the  assistance  of  Melancthon  and 
several  other  of  his  disciples,  he  finished  part  of  the 
New  Testament  in  the  year  1522 ;  and  the  publication 
of  it  proved  more  fatal  to  the  Church  of  Borne  than 
that  of  all  his  own  works.  It  was  read  with  wonderful 
avidity  and  attention  by  persons  of  every  rank.  They 
were  astonished  at  discovering  how  contrary  the  pre- 

44  Sleid.,  Hist.,  51.— Seckend.,  196. 


in.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  495 

cepts  of  the  Author  of  our  religion  are  to  the  inventions 
of  those  priests  who  pretended  to  be  his  vice-gerents ; 
and,  having  now  in  their  hand  the  rule  of  faith,  they 
thought  themselves  qualified,  by  applying  it,  to  judge  of 
the  established  opinions,  and  to  pronounce  when  they 
were  conformable  to  the  standard  or  when  they  departed 
from  it.  The  great  advantages  arising  from  Luther's 
translation  of  the  Bible  encouraged  the  advocates  for 
reformation  in  the  other  countries  of  Europe  to  imitate 
his  example,  and  to  publish  versions  of  the  Scriptures  in 
their  respective  languages. 

About  this  time,  Nuremberg,  Frankfort,  Hamburg, 
and  several  other  free  cities  in  Germany,  of  the  first 
rank,  openly  embraced  the  Reformed  religion,  and  by 
the  authority  of  their  magistrates  abolished  the  mass 
and  the  other  superstitious  rites  of  popery.45  The 
elector  of  Brandenburg,  the  dukes  of  Brunswick  and 
Lunenburg,  and  prince  of  Anhalt,  became  avowed 
patrons  of  Luther's  opinions  and  countenanced  the 
preaching  of  them  among  their  subjects. 

The  court  of  Rome  beheld  this  growing  defection 
with  great  concern ;  and  Adrian's  first  care,  after  his 
arrival  in  Italy,  had  been  to  deliberate  with  the  cardi- 
nals concerning  the  proper  means  of  putting  a  stop  to 
it.  He  was  profoundly  skilled  in  scholastic  theology, 
and,  having  been  early  celebrated  on  that  account,  he 
still  retained  such  an  excessive  admiration  of  the  science 
to  which  he  was  first  indebted  for  his  reputation  and 
success  in  life  that  he  considered  Luther's  invectives 
against  the  schoolmen,  particularly  Thomas  Aquinas, 
as  little  less  than  blasphemy.  All  the  tenets  of  that 
doctor  appeared  to  him  so  clear  and  irrefragable  that 
he  supposed  every  person  who  called  in  question  or 
contradicted  them  to  be  either  blinded  by  ignorance 
or  to  be  acting  in  opposition  to  the  conviction  of  his 

45  Seckend.,  241. — Chytraei  Contin.  Krantzii,  203. 


496  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  IIL 

own  mind.  Of  course,  no  pope  was  ever  more  bigoted 
or  inflexible  with,  regard  to  points  of  doctrine  than 
Adrian :  he  not  only  maintained  them,  as  Leo  had 
done,  because  they  were  ancient,  or  because  it  was 
dangerous  for  the  Church  to  allow  of  innovations,  but 
he  adhered  to  them  with  the  zeal  of  a  theologian  and 
with  the  tenaciousness  of  a  disputant.  At  the  same 
time,  his  own  manners  being  extremely  simple,  and 
uninfected  with  any  of  the  vices  which  reigned  in  the 
court  of  Eome,  he  was  as  sensible  of  its  corruptions  as 
the  Eeformers  themselves,  and  viewed  them  with  no 
less  indignation.  The  brief  which  he  addressed  to  the 
diet  of  the  empire  assembled  at  Nuremberg,  and  the 
instructions  which  he  gave  Cheregato,  the  nuncio  whom 
he  sent  thither,  were  framed  agreeably  to  these  views. 
On  the  one  hand,  he  condemned  Luther's  opinions  with 
more  asperity  and  rancour  of  expression  than  Leo  had 
ever  used ;  he  severely  censured  the  princes  of  Ger- 
many for  suffering  him  to  spread  his  pernicious  tenets 
by  their  neglecting  to  execute  the  edict  of  the  diet  at 
Worms,  and  required  them,  if  Luther  did  not  instantly 
retract  his  errors,  to  destroy  him  with  fire  as  a  gan- 
grened and  incurable  member,  in  like  manner  as  Dathan 
and  Abiram  had  been  cut  off  by  Moses,  Ananias  and 
Sapphira  by  the  apostles,  and  John  Huss  and  Jerome 
of  Prague  by  their  ancestors.46  On  the  other  hand, 
he,  with  great  candour  and  in  the  most  explicit  terms, 
acknowledged  the  corruptions  of  the  Eoman  court  to 
be  the  source  from  which  had  flowed  most  of  the  evils 
that  the  Church  now  felt  or  dreaded ;  he  promised  to 
exert  all  his  authority  towards  reforming  these  abuses, 
with  as  much  despatch  as  the  nature  and  inveteracy  of 
tie  disorders  would  admit ;  and  he  requested  of  them 
to  give  him  their  advice  with  regard  to  the  most  eft'ec- 

*  Fascic,  Ber.  expet,  et  fugiend.,  p.  342. 


HOOK  m.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  497 

tual  means  of  suppressing  that  new  heresy  which  had 
sprung  up  among  them.47 

The  members  of  the  diet,  after  praising  the  pope's 
pious  and  laudable  intentions,  excused  themselves  for 
not  executing  the  edict  of  Worms,  by  alleging  that  the 
prodigious  increase  of  Luther's  followers,  as  well  as  the 
aversion  to  the  court  of  Eome  among  their  other  sub- 
jects on  account  of  its  innumerable  exactions,  rendered 
such  an  attempt  not  only  dangerous,  but  impossible. 
They  affirmed  that  the  grievances  of  Germany,  which 
did  not  arise  from  imaginary  injuries,  but  from  imposi- 
tions no  less  real  than  intolerable,  as  his  holiness  would 
learn  from  a  catalogue  of  them  which  they  intended  to 
lay  before  him,  called  now  for  some  new  and  efficacious 
remedy;  and,  in  their  opinion,  the  only  remedy  ade- 
quate to  the  disease,  or  which  afforded  them  any  hopes 
of  seeing  the  Church  restored  to  soundness  and  vigour, 
was  a  general  council.  Such  a  council,  therefore,  they 
advised  him,  after  obtaining  the  emperor's  consent,  to 
assemble,  without  delay,  in  one  of  the  great  cities  of 
Germany,  that  all  who  had  right  to  be  present  might 
deliberate  with  freedom,  and  propose  their  opinions  with 
such  boldness  as  the  dangerous  situation  of  religion  at 
this  juncture  required.48 

The  nuncio,  more  artful  than  his  master,  and  bettor 
acquainted  with  the  political  views  and  interests  of  the 
Roman  court,  was  startled  at  the  proposition  of  a 
council,  and  easily  foresaw  how  dangerous  such  an 
assembly  might  prove  at  a  time  when  many  openly 
denied  the  papal  authority,  and  the  reverence  and  sub- 
mission yielded  to  it  visibly  declined  among  all.  For 
that  reason,  he  employed  his  utmost  address  in  order 
to  prevail  on  the  members  of  the  diet  to  proceed  them- 
selves with  greater  severity  against  the  Lutheran  heresy, 
and  to  relinquish  their  proposal  concerning  a  general 

47  Fascia  Rer.  expet.  et  fugiend.,  p.  345.  **  Ibid.,  p.  346. 

YOL.    I.  K  K 


EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  m. 

council  to  be  held  in  Germany.  They,  perceiving  the 
nuncio  to  be  more  solicitous  about  the  interests  of 
the  Eoman  court  than  the  tranquillity  of  the  empire 
or  purity  of  the  Church,  remained  inflexible,  and  con- 
tinued to  prepare  the  catalogue  of  their  grievances  to 
be  presented  to  the  pope.49  The  nuncio,  that  he  might 
not  be  the  bearer  of  a  remonstrance  so  disagreeable  to 
his  court,  left  Nuremberg  abruptly,  without  taking  leave 
of  the  diet.50 

The  secular  princes  accordingly,  for  the  ecclesiastics, 
although  they  gave  no  opposition,  did  not  think  it- 
decent  to  join  with  them,  drew  up  the  list  (so  famous 
in  the  German  annals)  of  a  hundred  grievances  which 
the  empire  imputed  to  the  iniquitous  dominion  of  the 
papal  see.  This  list  contained  grievances  much  of  the 
same  nature  with  that  prepared  under  the  reign  of 
Maximilian.  It  would  be  tedious  to  enumerate  each 
of  them :  they  complained  of  the  sums  exacted  for  dis- 
pensations, absolutions,  and  indulgences ;  of  the  expense 
arising  from  the  lawsuits  carried  by  appeal  to  Rome ;  of 
the  innumerable  abuses  occasioned  by  reservations,  com- 
mendams,  and  annates;  of  the  exemption  from  civil 
jurisdiction  which  the  clergy  had  obtained;  of  the  arts 
by  which  they  brought  all  secular  causes  under  the 
cognizance  of  the  ecclesiastical  judges ;  of  the  indecent 
and  profligate  lives  which  not  a  few  of  the  clergy  led ; 
and  of  various  other  particulars,  many  of  which  have 
already  been  mentioned  among  the  circumstances  that 
contributed  to  the  favourable  reception  or  to  the  quick 
progress  of  Luther's  doctrines.  In  the  end  they  con- 
cluded that,  if  the  holy  see  did  not  speedily  deliver 
them  from  those  intolerable  burdens,  they  had  deter- 
mined to  endure  them  no  longer,  and  would  employ  the 


46  Fascic.  Ker.  expet.  et  fugiend.,  p.  349. 
"  Ibid.,  p.  376. 


BOOK  in.]          EMPEKOE  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  499 

power  and  authority  with  which  God  had  intrusted  them 
in  order  to  procure  relief.51 

Instead  of  such  severities  against  Luther  and  his 
followers  as  the  nuncio  had  recommended,  the  recess  or 
edict  of  the  diet  contained  only  a  general  injunction  to 
all  ranks  of  men  to  wait  with  patience  for  the  determina- 
tions of  the  council  which  was  to  be  assembled,  and  in 
the  mean  time  not  to  publish  any  new  opinions  contrary 
to  the  established  doctrines  of  the  Church;  together 
with  an  admonition  to  all  preachers  to  abstain  from 
matters  of  controversy  in  their  discourses  to  the  people, 
and  to  confine  themselves  to  the  plain  and  instructive 
truths  of  religion.52  [1523.] 

The  Eeformers  derived  great  advantage  from  the 
transactions  of  this  diet,  as  they  afforded  them  the 
fullest  and  most  authentic  evidence  that  gross  corrup- 
tions prevailed  in  the  court  of  Rome,  and  that  the 
empire  was  loaded  by  the  clergy  with  insupportable 
burdens.  With  regard  to  the  former,  they  had  now  the 
testimony  of  the  pope  himself,  that  their  invectives  and 
accusations  were  not  malicious  or  ill-founded.  As  to  the 
latter,  the  representatives  of  the  Germanic  body,  in  an 
assembly  where  the  patrons  of  the  new  opinions  were  far 
from  being  the  most  numerous  or  powerful,  had  pointed 
out  as  the  chief  grievances  of  the  empire  those  very  prac- 
tices of  the  Romish  Church  against  which  Luther  and 
his  disciples  were  accustomed  to  declaim.  Accordingly, 
in  all  their  controversial  writings  after  this  period,  they 
often  appealed  to  Adrian's  declaratior,  r.nd  to  the  hun- 
dred grievances,  in  confirmation  of  whatever  they  ad- 
vanced concerning  the  dissolute  manners,  or  insatiable 
ambition  and  rapaciousness,  of  the  papal  court* 

At  Rome,  Adrian's  conduct  was  considered  as  a  proof 
of  the  most  childish  simplicity  and  imprudence.  Men 

•'  Fascic.  Her.  expet  et  fugiend.,  p.  354. 
*  Ibid.,  p.  348. 

KXi 


EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  in. 

trained  up  amidst  the  artifices  and  corruptions  of  tho 
papal  court,  and  accustomed  to  judge  of  actions  not  by 
what  was  just,  but  by  what  was  useful,  were  astonished 
at  a  pontiff  who,  departing  from  the  wise  maxims  of 
his  predecessors,  acknowledged  disorders  which  he 
ought  to  have  concealed,  and,  forgetting  his  owr 
dignity,  asked  advice  of  those  to  whom  he  was  entitled 
to  prescribe.  By  such  an  excess  of  impolitic  sincerity, 
they  were  afraid  that,  instead  of  reclaiming  the  enemies 
of  the  Church,  he  would  render  them  more  presump- 
tuous, and,  instead  of  extinguishing  heresy,  would 
weaken  the  foundations  of  the  papal  power,  or  stop 
the  chief  sources  from  which  wealth  flowed  into  the 
Church.53  For  this  reason,  the  cardinals,  and  other 
ecclesiastics  of  greatest  eminence  in  the  papal  court, 
industriously  opposed  all  his  schemes  of  reformation, 
and,  by  throwing  objections  and  difficulties  in  his  way, 
endeavoured  to  retard  or  to  defeat  the  execution  of 
them.  Adrian,  amazed,  on  the  one  hand,  at  the  obsti- 
nacy of  the  Lutherans,  disgusted,  on  the  other,  with 
the  manners  and  maxims  of  the  Italians,  and  finding 
himself  unable  to  correct  either  the  one  or  the  other, 
often  lamented  his  own  situation,  and  often  looked  back 
with  pleasure  on  that  period  of  his  life  when  he  was 
only  dean  of  Louvain,  a  more  humble  but  happier  sta- 
tion, in  which  little  was  expected  from  him,  and  there 
was  nothing  to  frustrate  his  good  intentions.54 

Clement  VII.,  his  successor,  excelled  Adrian  as  much 
in  the  arts  of  government  as  he  was  inferior  to  him  in 
purity  of  life  or  uprightness  of  intention.  He  was 
animated  not  only  with  the  aversion  which  all  popes 
naturally  bear  to  a  council,  but,  having  gained  his  own 
election  by  means  very  uncanonical,  he  was  afraid  of 
an  assembly  that  might  subject  it  to  a  scrutiny  which  it 

**  F.  Paul,  Hist  of  Counc.,  p.  28. — PaUavic.,  Hist,  5& 
*4  Jovii  Vit  Adr.,  p.  118. 


BOOK  in.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  501 

could  not  stand.  He  determined,  therefore,  by  every 
possible  means  to  elude  the  demands  of  the  Germans, 
both  with  respect  to  the  calling  of  a  council,  and  re- 
forming abuses  in  the  papal  court,  which  the  rashness 
and  incapacity  of  his  predecessor  had  brought  upon 
him.  For  this  purpose  he  made  choice  of  Cardinal 
Campcggio,  an  artful  man,  often  intrusted  by  his  pre- 
decessors with  negotiations  of  importance,  as  his  nuncio 
to  the  diet  of  the  empire,  assembled  again  at  Nurem- 
berg. 

Campeggio,  without  taking  any  notice  of  what  had 
passed  in  the  last  meeting,  exhorted  the  diet,  in  a  long 
discourse,  to  execute  the  edict  of  Worms  with  vigour, 
as  the  only  effectual  means  of  suppressing  Luther's  doc- 
trines. The  diet,  in  return,  desired  to  know  the  pope's 
intentions  concerning  the  council  and  the  redress  of  the 
hundred  grievances.  The  former  the  nuncio  endea- 
voured to  elude  by  general  and  unmeaning  declarations 
of  the  pope's  resolution  to  pursue  such  measures  as 
would  be  for  the  greatest  good  of  the  Church.  With 
regard  to  the  latter,  as  Adrian  was  dead  before  the 
catalogue  of  grievances  reached  Eome,  and,  of  conse- 
quence, it  had  not  been  regularly  laid  before  the  present 
pope,  Campeggio  took  advantage  of  this  circumstance 
to  decline  making  any  definitive  answer  to  them  in 
Clement's  name ;  though,  at  the  same  time,  he  observed 
that  their  catalogue  of  grievances  contained  many  par- 
ticulars extremely  indecent  and  undutiful,  and  that  the 
publishing  it  by  their  own  authority  was  highly  dis- 
respectful to  the  Eoman  see.  In  the  end,  he  renewed  his 
demand  of  their  proceeding  with  vigour  against  Luther 
and  his  adherents.  But  though  an  ambassador  from  the 
emperor,  who  was  at  that  time  very  solicitous  to  gain 
the  pope,  warmly  seconded  the  nuncio,  with  many  pro- 
fessions of  his  master's  zeal  for  the  honour  and  dignity 
of  the  papal  see,  the  recess  of  the  diet  was  conceived  in 


502  EETGN  OP  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  [BOOK  in. 

terms  of  almost  the  same  import  with  the  former,  with- 
out enjoining  any  additional  severity  against  Luther  and 
his  party.55 

Before  he  left  Germany,  Campeggio,  in  order  to 
rimuse  and  soothe  the  people,  published  certain  arti- 
cles for  the  amendment  of  some  disorders  and  abuses 
which  prevailed  among  the  inferior  clergy ;  but  this 
partial  reformation,  which  fell  so  far  short  of  the  ex- 
pectations of  the  Lutherans  and  of  the  demands  of  the 
diet,  gave  no  satisfaction,  and  produced  little  effect. 
The  nuncio,  with  a  cautious  hand,  tenderly  lopped  a 
few  branches  ;  the  Germans  aimed  a  deeper  blow, 
and,  by  striking  at  the  root,  wished  to  exterminate  the 
evil.46 

"  Seckend,  286.— Sleid.,  Hist,  66.  *•  Seckeni,  293 


BOOK:  TV. 


Views  of  the  Italian  States  respecting  Charles  and  Francis. — Charlet 
invades  France  without  Success. — Francis  invades  the  Milanese. — 
He  besieges  Pavia. — Neutrality  of  the  Pope. — Francis  attacks  Naples. 
— Movements  of  the  Imperial  Generals. — Battle  or  Pavia. — Francis 
taken  Prisoner. — Schemes  of  the  Emperor. — Prudence  of  Louise  the 
Regent. — Conduct  of  Henry  VIII.  and  of  the  Italian  Powers. — 
The  Emperor's  rigorous  Terms  to  Francis. — Francis  carried  to  Spain. 
— Henry  makes  a  Treaty  with  the  Regent  Louise. — Intrigues  of 
Morone  in  Milan. — He  is  betrayed  by  Pescara. — Treatment  of 
Francis. — Bourbon  made  General  and  Duke  of  Milan. — Treaty  of 
Madrid. — Liberation  of  Francis. — Charles  marries  Isabella  of  Por- 
tugal.— Affairs  in  Germany. — Insurrections. — Conduct  of  Luther. — 
Prussia  wrested  from  the  Teutonic  Knights. — Measures  of  Francis 
upon  reaching  his  Kingdom. — A  League  against  the  Emperor. — 
Preparations  for  War. — The  Colonnas  Masters  of  Rome. — The  Pope 
detached  from  the  Holy  League. — Position  of  the  Emperor. — 
Bourbon  marches  towards  the  Pope's  Territories. — Negotiations. — 
Assault  of  Rome. — Bourbon  slain. — The  City  taken  and  plundered. 
— The  Pope  a  Prisoner. — Hypocrisy  of  the  Emperor. — Solyman 
invades  Hungary. — Ferdinand,  Archduke  of  Austria,  becomes  King 
of  Hungary. — Progress  of  the  Reformation. 

THE  expulsion  of  the  French  both  out  of  the  Milanese 
und  the  republic  of  Genoa  was  considered  by  the  Italians 
as  the  termination  of  the  war  between  Charles  and 
Francis ;  and  as  they  began  immediately  to  be  appre- 
hensive of  the  emperor,  when  they  saw  no  power  remain- 
ing in  Italy  capable  either  to  control  or  oppose  him, 
they  longed  ardently  for  the  re-establishment  of  peace. 
Having  procured  the  restoration  of  Sforza  to  his  paternal 
dominions,  which  had  been  their  chief  motive  for  enter- 
ing into  confederacy  with  Charles,  they  plainly  dis- 
covered their  intention  to  contribute  no  longer  towards 
increasing  the  emperor's  superiority  over  his  rival,  which 


604  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  iv 

was  already  become  the  object  of  their  jealousy.  The 
pope  especially,  whose  natural  timidity  increased  his 
suspicions  of  Charles's  designs,  endeavoured  by  his  re- 
monstrances to  inspire  him  with  moderation  and  incline 
him  to  peace. 

But  the  emperor,  intoxicated  with  success,  and  urged 
on  by  his  own  ambition,  no  less  than  by  Bourbon's 
desire  of  revenge,  contemned  Clement's  admonitions, 
and  declared  his  resolution  of  ordering  his  army  to  pass 
the  Alps  and  to  invade  Provence,  a  part  of  his  rival's 
dominions  where,  as  he  least  dreaded  an  attack,  he  was 
least  prepared  to  resist  it.  His  most  experienced  minis- 
ters dissuaded  him  from  undertaking  such  an  enterprise 
with  a  feeble  army  and  an  exhausted  treasury  ;  but  he 
relied  so  much  on  having  obtained  the  concurrence  of 
the  king  of  England,  and  on  the  hopes  which  Bourbon, 
with  the  confidence  and  credulity  natural  to  exiles, 
entertained  of  being  joined  by  a  numerous  body  of  his 
partisans  as  soon  as  the  imperial  troops  should  enter 
France,  that  he  persisted  obstinately  in  the  measure. 
Henry  undertook  to  furnish  a  hundred  thousand  ducats 
towards  defraying  the  expense  of  the  expedition  during 
the  first  month,  and  had  it  in  hie  choice  either  to  con- 
tinue the  payment  of  that  sum  monthly,  or  to  invade 
Picardy  before  the  end  of  July  with  an  army  capable  of 
acting  with  vigour.  The  emperor  engaged  to  attack 
Guienne  at  the  same  time  with  a  considerable  body  of 
men;  and  if  these  enterprises  proved  successful,  they 
agreed  that  Bourbon,  besides  the  territories  which  he 
had  lost,  should  be  put  in  possession  of  Provence,  with 
the  title  of  king,  and  should  do  homage  to  Henry,  as 
the  lawful  king  of  France,  for  his  new  dominions.  Of 
all  the  parts  of  this  extensive  but  extravagant  project 
the  invasion  of  Provence  was  the  only  one  which  was 
executed.  For  although  Bourbon,  with  a  scrupulous 
delicacy,  altogether  unexpected  after  the  part  which  hr 


BOOK  iv.  j  EMPEROR  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  505 

had  acted,  positively  refused  to  acknowledge  Henry's 
title  to  the  crown  of  France,  and  thereby  absolved  him 
from  any  obligation  to  promote  the  enterprise,  Charles's 
eagerness  to  carry  his  own  plan  into  execution  did  not 
in  any  degree  abate.  The  army  which  he  employed  for 
that  purpose  amounted  only  to  eighteen  thousand  men, 
the  command  of  which  was  given  to  the  marquis  de 
Pescara,  with  instructions  to  pay  the  greatest  deference 
to  Bourbon's  advice  in  all  his  operations.  Pescara  passed 
the  Alps  without  opposition,  and,  entering  Provence, 
laid  siege  to  Marseilles.  Bourbon  had  advised  him  rather 
to  march  towards  Lyons,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  which 
city  his  territories  were  situated,  and  where  of  course 
his  influence  was  most  extensive ;  but  the  emperor  was 
so  desirous  to  get  possession  of  a  port  which  would  at  all 
times  secure  him  an  easy  entrance  into  France  that  bj 
his  authority  he  overruled  the  constable's  opinion,  and 
directed  Pescara  to  make  the  reduction  of  Marseilles  his 
chief  object.1 

Francis,  who  foresaw,  but  was  unable  to  prevent,  this 
attempt,  took  the  most  proper  precautions  to  defeat  it. 
He  laid  waste  the  adjacent  country,  in  order  to  render 
it  more  difficult  for  the  enemy  to  subsist  their  army ;  he 
razed  the  suburbs  of  the  city,  strengthened  its  fortifica- 
tions, and  threw  into  it  a  numerous  garrison,  under  the 
command  of  brave  and  experienced  officers.  To  these, 
nine  thousand  of  the  citizens,  whom  their  dread  of  the 
Spanish  yoke  inspired  with  contempt  of  danger,  joined 
themselves ;  by  their  united  courage  and  industry,  all 
the  efforts  of  Pescara' s  military  skill  and  of  Bourbon's 
activity  and  revenge  were  rendered  abortive.  Francis, 
meanwhile,  had  leisure  to  assemble  a  powerful  army 
under  the  walls  of  Avignon,  and  no  sooner  began  to 
advance  towards  Marseilles  than  the  imperial  troops, 
exhausted  by  the  fatigues  of  a  siege  which  had  lasted 

1  Guic..  lib.  xv.  273,  etc. — M&n.  de  Bellay,  p.  80. 


506  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  rv. 

forty  days,  weakened  by  diseases,  and  almost  destitute 
of  provisions,  retired  with  precipitation  towards  Italy.2 

If,  during  these  operations  of  the  army  in  Provence, 
either  Charles  or  Henry  had  attacked  France  in  the 
manner  which  they  had  projected,  that  kingdom  must 
have  been  exposed  to  the  most  imminent  danger.  But 
on  this,  as  well  as  on  many  other  occasions,  the  emperor 
found  that  the  extent  of  his  revenues  was  not  adequate 
to  the  greatness  of  his  schemes  or  the  ardour  of  his 
ambition,  and  the  want  of  money  obliged  him,  though 
with  much  reluctance,  to  circumscribe  his  plan  and  to 
leave  part  of  it  unexecuted.  Henry,  disgusted  at 
Bourbon's  refusing  to  recognise  his  right  to  the  crown 
of  France,  alarmed  at  the  motions  of  the  Scots,  whom 
the  solicitations  of  the  French  king  had  persuaded  to 
march  towards  the  borders  of  England,  and  no  longer  in- 
cited by  his  minister,  who  was  become  extremely  cool  with 
regard  to  all  the  emperor's  interests,  took  no  measures 
to  support  an  enterprise  of  which,  as  of  all  new  under- 
takings, he  had  been  at  first  excessively  fond.3 

If  the  king  of  France  had  been  satisfied  with  having 
delivered  his  subjects  from  this  formidable  invasion,  if 
he  had  thought  it  enough  to  show  all  Europe  the  facility 
with  which  the  internal  strength  of  his  dominions  en- 
abled him  to  resist  the  invasions  of  a  foreign  enemy, 
even  when  seconded  by  the  abilities  and  powerful  efforts 
of  a  rebellious  subject,  the  campaign,  notwithstanding 
the  loss  of  the  Milanese,  would  have  been  far  from 
ending  ingloriously.  But  Francis,  animated  with  courage 
more  becoming  a  soldier  than  a  general,  pushed  on  by 
ambition,  enterprising  rather  than  considerate,  and  too 
apt  to  be  elated  with  success,  was  fond  of  every  under- 
taking that  seemed  bold  and  adventurous.  Such  an 
undertaking  the  situation  of  his  affairs  at  that  juncture 

'Guic.,  lib.  xv.  277.— Ulloa,  3  Fiddes's  Life  of  Wolsey,  Ap- 
Vitn  di  Carlo  V.,  p.  93.  pend.  Nos.  70,  71,  72, 


BOOK  iv.]          EMPEROR  OHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  507 

naturally  presented  to  his  view.  He  had  under  his 
command  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  best-appointed 
armies  France  had  ever  brought  into  the  field,  which  he 
could  not  think  of  disbanding  without  having  employed 
it  in  any  active  service.  The  imperial  troops  had  been 
obliged  to  retire,  almost  ruined  by  hard  duty,  and  dis- 
heartened with  ill  success ;  the  Milanese  had  been  left 
altogether  without  defence;  it  was  not  impossible  to 
reach  that  country  before  Pescara,  with  his  shattered 
forces,  could  arrive  there ;  or,  if  fear  should  add  speed 
to  their  retreat,  they  were  in  no  condition  to  make  head 
against  his  fresh  and  numerous  troops,  and  Milan  would 
now,  as  in  former  instances,  submit  without  resistance 
to  a  bold  invader.  These  considerations,  which  were 
not  destitute  of  plausibility,  appeared  to  his  sanguine 
temper  to  be  of  the  utmost  weight.  In  vain  did  his 
wisest  ministers  and  generals  represent  to  him  the 
danger  of  taking  the  field  at  a  season  so  far  advanced, 
with  an  army  composed  chiefly  of  Swiss  and  Germans, 
to  whose  caprices  he  would  be  subject  in  all  his  opera- 
tions and  on  whose  fidelity  his  safety  must  absolutely 
depend.  In  vain  did  Louise  of  Savoy  advance  by  hasty 
journeys  towards  Provence,  that  she  might  exert  all  her 
authority  in  dissuading  her  son  from  such  a  rash  enter- 
prise. Francis  disregarded  the  remonstrances  of  his 
subjects ;  and,  that  he  might  save  himself  the  pain  of 
an  interview  with  his  mother,  whose  counsels  he  had 
determined  to  reject,  he  began  his  march  before  her 
arrival,  appointing  her,  however,  by  way  of  atonement 
for  that  neglect,  to  be  regent  of  the  kingdom  during 
his  absence.  Bonnivet,  by  his  persuasions,  contributed 
not  a  little  to  confirm  Francis  in  this  resolution.  TJiat 
favourite,  who  strongly  resembled  his  master  in  all  the 
defective  parts  of  his  character,  was  led,  by  his  natural 
impetuosity,  warmly  to  approve  of  such  an  enterprise ; 
and  being  prompted  besides  by  his  impatience  to  visit 


508  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  rv. 

a  Milanese  lady  of  whom  he  had  been  deeply  enamoured 
during  his  late  expedition,  he  is  said,  by  his  flattering 
descriptions  of  her  beauty  and  accomplishments,  to  have 
inspired  Francis,  who  was  extremely  susceptible  of  such 
passions,  with  an  equal  desire  of  seeing  her.4 

The  French  passed  the  Alps  at  Mount  Cenis ;  and, 
as  their  success  depended  on  despatch,  they  advanced 
with  the  greatest  diligence.  Pescara,  who  had  been 
obliged  to  take  a  longer  and  more  difficult  route  by 
Monaco  and  Final,  was  soon  informed  of  their  intention, 
and,  being  sensible  that  nothing  but  the  presence  of  his 
troops  could  save  the  Milanese,  marched  with  such 
rapidity  that  he  reached  Alva  on  the  same  day  that  the 
French  army  arrived  at  Yercelli.  Francis,  instructed 
by  Bonnivet's  error  in  the  former  campaign,  advanced 
directly  towards  Milan,  where  the  unexpected  approach 
of  an  enemy  so  powerful  occasioned  such  consternation 
and  disorder  that,  although  Pescara  entered  the  city 
with  some  of  his  best  troops,  he  found  that  the  defence 
of  it  could  not  be  undertaken  with  any  probability  of 
success,  and,  having  thrown  a  garrison  into  the  citadel, 
retired  through  one  gate,  while  the  French  were  admitted 
at  another.8 

These  brisk  motions  of  the  French  monarch  discon- 
certed all  the  schemes  of  defence  which  the  imperialists 
had  formed.  Never,  indeed,  did  generals  attempt  to 
oppose  a  formidable  invasion  under  such  circumstances 
of  disadvantage.  Though  Charles  possessed  dominions 
more  extensive  than  any  other  prince  in  Europe,  and 
had  at  this  time  no  other  army  but  that  which  was 
employed  in  Lombardy,  which  did  not  amount  to  sixteen 
thousand  men,  his  prerogative  in  all  his  different  states 
was  so  limited,  and  his  subjects,  without  whose  consent 
he  could  raise  no  taxes,  discovered  such  unwillingness 

4  (Euv.  de  Brant,  torn,  vi  253. 

4  M&ru  de  Bellay,  p.  81. — Guic.,  lib.  xv.  278. 


BOOK  iv.]          EMPEEOE  GHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  509 

to  burden  themselves  with  new  or  extraordinary  impo- 
sitions, that  even  this  small  body  of  troops  was  in  want 
of  pay,  of  ammunition,  of  provisions,  and  of  clothing. 
In  such  a  situation,  it  required  all  the  wisdom  of 
Lannoy,  the  intrepidity  of  Pescara,  and  the  implacable 
resentment  of  Bourbon  to  preserve  them  from  sinking 
under  despair,  and  to  inspire  them  with  resolution  to 
attempt,  or  sagacity  to  discover,  what  was  essential  to 
their  safety.  To  the  efforts  of  their  genius  and  the 
activity  of  their  zeal  the  emperor  was  more  indebted 
for  the  preservation  of  his  Italian  dominions  than  to  his 
own  power.  Lannoy,  by  mortgaging  the  revenues  of 
Naples,  procured  some  money,  which  was  immediately 
applied  towards  providing  the  army  with  whatever  was 
most  necessary.6  Pescara,  who  was  beloved  and  almost 
adored  by  the  Spanish  troops,  exhorted  them  to  show 
the  world,  by  their  engaging  to  serve  the  emperor  in 
that  dangerous  exigency  without  making  any  immediate 
demand  of  paj^,  that  they  were  animated  with  senti- 
ments of  honour  very  different  from  those  of  mercenary 
soldiers  ;  to  which  proposition  that  gallant  body  of  men, 
with  an  unexampled  generosity,  gave  their  consent.7 
Bourbon,  having  raised  a  considerable  sum  by  pawning 
his  jewels,  set  out  for  Germany,  where  his  influence  was 
great,  that  by  his  presence  he  might  hasten  the  levying 
of  troops  for  the  imperial  service.8 

Francis,  by  a  fatal  error,  allowed  the  emperor's  gene- 
rals time  to  derive  advantage  from  all  these  operations. 
Instead  of  pursuing  the  enemy,  who  retired  to  Lodi  on 
the  Adda,  an  untenable  post,  which  Pescara  had  resolved 
to  abandon  on  the  approach  of  the  French,  he,  in  com- 
pliance with  the  opinion  of  Bonnivet,  though  contrary 

6  Guic.,  lib.  xv.  280  — Vida  del  Emperador  Carlos  V., 

7  Jovii  Vit  Davali,  lib.  IT.    p.  por  Vera  y  Zuiiiga,  p.  36. 
386. — Sandoval,    vol.     L     621. —          8  Mem.  de  Bellay,  p.  83. 
Ulloa,  Vita  di  Carlo  V.,  p.  94,  etc. 


510  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  iv. 

to  that  of  his  other  generals,  laid  siege  to  Pavia  on 
the  Tessino, — a  town,  indeed,  of  great  importance,  the 
possession  of  which  would  have  opened  to  him  all  the 
fertile  country  lying  on  the  banks  of  that  river.  But 
the  fortifications  of  the  place  were  strong ;  it  was  dan- 
gerous to  undertake  a  difficult  siege  at  so  late  a  season ; 
and  the  imperial  generals,  sensible  of  its  consequence, 
had  thrown  into  the  town  a  garrison  composed  of  six 
thousand  veterans  under  the  command  of  Antonio  de 
Leyva,  an  officer  of  high  rank,  of  great  experience,  of 
a  patient  but  enterprising  courage,  fertile  in  resources, 
ambitious  of  distinguishing  himself,  and  capable,  for  that 
reason,  as  well  as  from  his  having  been  long  accustomed 
both  to  obey  and  to  command,  of  suffering  or  performing 
anything  in  order  to  procure  success. 

Francis  prosecuted  the  siege  with  obstinacy  equal  to 
the  rashness  with  which  he  had  undertaken  it.  During 
three  months,  everything  known  to  the  engineers  of 
that  age,  or  that  could  be  effected  by  the  valour  of  his 
troops,  was  attempted  in  order  to  reduce  the  place ;  while 
Lannoy  and  Pescara,  unable  to  obstruct  his  operations, 
were  obliged  to  remain  in  such  an  ignominious  state  of 
inaction  that  a  pasquinade  was  published  at  Eome,  offer- 
ing a  reward  to  any  person  who  could  find  the  imperial 
army,  lost  in  the  month  of  October  in  the  mountains 
between  France  and  Lombardy,  and  which  had  not  been 
heard  of  since  that  time.9 

Leyva,  well  acquainted  with  the  difficulties  under 
which  his  countrymen  laboured,  and  the  impossibility 
of  their  facing  in  the  field  such  a  powerful  army  as 
formed  the  siege  of  Pavia,  placed  his  only  hopes  of 
safety  in  his  own  vigilance  and  valour.  The  efforts  of 
both  were  extraordinary,  and  in  proportion  to  the  im- 
portance of  the  place  with  the  defence  of  which  he  waa 
intrusted.  He  interrupted  the  approaches  of  the  French 

9  Sandoval,  i.  60a 


BOOK  iv.]          EMPEEOE  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  511 

by  frequent  and  furious  sallies.  Behind  the  breaches 
made  by  their  artillery  he  erected  new  works,  which 
appeared  to  be  scarcely  inferior  in  strength  to  the  original 
fortifications.  He  repulsed  the  besiegers  in  all  their 
assaults,  and,  by  his  own  example,  brought  not  only  the 
garrison,  but  the  inhabitants,  to  bear  the  most  severe 
fatigues  and  to  encounter  the  greatest  dangers  without 
murmuring.  The  rigour  of  the  season  conspired  with 
his  endeavours  in  retarding  the  progress  of  the  French. 
Francis  attempting  to  become  master  of  the  town  by 
diverting  the  course  of  the  Tessino,  which  is  its  chief 
defence  on  one  side,  a  sudden  inundation  of  the  river 
destroyed  in  one  day  the  labour  of  many  weeks,  and 
swept  away  all  the  mounds  which  his  army  had  raised 
with  infinite  toil  as  well  as  at  great  expense.10 

Notwithstanding  the  slow  progress  of  the  besiegers, 
and  the  glory  which  Leyva  acquired  by  his  gallant 
defence,  it  was  not  doubted  but  that  the  town  would  at 
last  be  obliged  to  surrender.  The  pope,  who  already 
considered  the  French  arms  as  superior  in  Italy,  became 
impatient  to  disengage  himself  from  his  connections 
with  the  emperor,  of  whose  designs  he  was  extremely 
jualous,  and  to  enter  into  terms  of  friendship  with 
Francis.  As  Clement's  timid  and  cautious  temper  ren- 
dered him  incapable  of  following  the  bold  plan  which 
Leo  had  formed,  of  delivering  Italy  from  the  yoke  of 
both  the  rivals,  he  returned  to  the  more  obvious  and 
practicable  scheme  of  employing  the  power  of  the  one 
to  balance  and  to  restrain  that  of  the  other.  For  this 
reason,  he  did  not  dissemble  his  satisfaction  at  seeing 
the  French  king  recover  Milan,  as  he  hoped  that  the 
dread  of  such  a  neighbour  would  be  some  check  upon 
the  emperor's  ambition,  which  no  power  in  Italy  was 
now  able  to  control.  He  laboured  hard  to  bring  about 
a  peace  that  would  secure  Francis  in  the  possession  of 

10  Guic.,  lib.  xv.  280.— Ulloa,  Vita  di  Carlo  V.,  p.  95. 


512  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  i\. 

his  new  conquests ;  and  as  Charles,  who  was  always 
inflexible  in  the  prosecution  of  his  schemes,  rejected  the 
proposition  with  disdain,  and  with  bitter  exclamations 
against  the  pope,  by  whose  persuasions,  while  Cardinal 
de'  Medici,  he  had  been  induced  to  invade  the  Milanese, 
Clement  immediately  concluded  a  treaty  of  neutrality 
with  the  king  of  France,  in  which  the  republic  of 
Florence  was  included.11 

Francis,  having  by  this  transaction,  deprived  the 
emperor  of  his  two  most  powerful  allies,  and  at  the 
same  time  having  secured  a  passage  for  his  own  troor>s 
through  their  territories,  formed  a  scheme  of  attacking 
the  kingdom  of  Naples,  hoping  either  to  overrun  that 
country,  which  was  left  altogether  without  defence,  or 
that  at  least  such  an  unexpected  invasion  would  oblige 
the  viceroy  to  recall  part  of  the  imperial  army  out  of 
the  Milanese.  For  this  purpose  he  ordered  six  thousand 
men  to  march  under  the  command  of  John  Stuart,  duke 
of  Albany.  But  Pescara,  foreseeing  that  the  effect  of 
this  diversion  would  depend  entirely  upon  the  operations 
of  the  armies  in  the  Milanese,  persuaded  Lannoy  to  dis- 
regard Albany's  motions12  and  to  bend  his  whole  force 
against  the  king  himself ;  so  that  Francis  not  only 
weakened  his  army  very  unseasonably  by  this  great  de- 
tachment, but  incurred  the  reproach  of  engaging  too 
rashly  in  chimerical  and  extravagant  projects. 

By  this  time  the  garrison  of  Pavia  was  reduced  to 
extremity ;  their  ammunition  and  provisions  began  to 
fail ;  the  Germans,  of  whom  it  was  chiefly  composed, 
having  received  no  pay  for  seven  months,13  threatened 
to  deliver  the  town  into  the  enemy's  hands,  and  could 
hardly  be  restrained  from  mutiny  by  all  Leyva's  address 
and  authority.  The  imperial  generals,  who  were  no 
strangers  to  his  situation,  saw  the  necessity  of  marching 

11  Guic.,  lib.  xv.  282,  285.  ls  Gold.,  Polit.  Imperial,  875. 

12  Ibid.,  p.  285. 


BOOK  iv.]       EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  513 

without  loss  of  time  to  his  relief.  This  they  had  now  in 
their  power :  twelve  thousand  Germans,  whom  the  zeal 
and  activity  of  Bourbon  taught  to  move  with  unusual 
rapidity,  had  entered  Lombardy  under  his  command, 
and  rendered  the  imperial  army  nearly  equal  to  that  of 
the  French,  greatly  diminished  by  the  absence  of  the 
body  under  Albany,  as  well  as  by  the  fatigues  of  the 
siege  and  the  rigour  of  the  season.  But  the  more  their 
troops  increased  in  number,  the.  more  .sensibly  did  the 
imperialists  feel  the  distress  arising  from  want  of  money. 
Far  from  having  funds  for  paying  a  powerful  army, 
they  had  scarcely  what  was  sufficient  for  defraying  the 
charges  of  conducting  their  artillery  and  of  carrying 
their  ammunition  and  provisions.  The  abilities  of  the 
generals,  however,  supplied  every  defect.  By  their  own 
example,  as  well  as  by  magnificent  promises  in  the  name 
of  the  emperor,  they  prevailed  on  the  troops  of  all  the 
different  nations  which  composed  their  army  to  take  the 
field  without  pay ;  they  engaged  to  lead  them  directly 
towards  the  enemy,  and  flattered  them  with  the  certain 
prospect  of  victory,  which  would  at  once  enrich  them 
with  such  royal  spoils  as  would  be  an  ample  reward  for 
all  their  services.  The  soldiers,  sensible  that  by  quitting 
the  army  they  would  forfeit  the  great  arrears  due  to 
them,  and  eager  to  get  possession  of  the  promised 
treasures,  demanded  a  battle  with  all  the  impatience  of 
adventurers  who  fight  only  for  plunder.14 

The  imperial  generals,  without  suffering  the  ardour 
of  their  troops  to  cool,  advanced  immediately  towards 
the  French  camp.  On  the  first  intelligence  of  their 
approach,  Francis  called  a  council  of  war,  to  deliberate 
what  course  he  ought  to  take.  All  his  officers  of  greatest 
experience  were  unanimous  in  advising  him  to  retire, 
and  to  decline  a  battle  with  an  enemy  who  courted  it 

14  Eryci  Peuteani  Hist  Cisalpina,  ap.  Graavii  Thes.  Antiquit  Ital.,  iii. 
1170,  1179. 

VIM.  I.  L  It 


514  EEIGN  OF  THE:  [BOOK  iv. 

from  despair.  The  imperialists,  they  observed,  would 
either  be  obliged  in  a  few  weeks  to  disband  an  army 
which  they  were  unable  to  pay,  and  which  they  kept 
together  only  by  the  hope  of  plunder,  or  the  soldiers, 
enraged  at  the  non-performance  of  the  promises  to 
which  they  had  trusted,  would  rise  in  some  furious 
mutiny,  which  would  allow  their  generals  to  think  of 
nothing  but  their  own  safety ;  that,  meanwhile,  he  might 
encamp  in  some  strong  post,  and,  waiting  in  safety  the 
arrival  of  fresh  troops  from  France  and  Switzerland, 
might,  before  the  end  of  spring,  take  possession  of  all 
the  Milanese  without  danger  or  bloodshed.  But  in  op- 
position to  them,  Bonnivet,  whose  destiny  it  was  to  give 
counsels  fatal  to  France  during  the  whole  campaign, 
represented  the  ignominy  that  it  would  reflect  on  their 
sovereign  if  he  should  abandon  a  siege  which  he  had 
prosecuted  so  long,  or  turn  his  back  before  an  enemy  to 
whom  he  was  still  superior  in  number,  and  insisted  on 
the  necessity  of  fighting  the  imperialists  rather  than 
relinquish  an  undertaking  on  the  success  of  which  the 
king's  future  fame  depended.  Unfortunately,  Francis's 
notions  of  honour  were  delicate  to  an  excess  that  bordered 
on  what  was  romantic.  Having  often  said  that  he  would 
take  Pavia  or  perish  in  the  attempt,  he  thought  himself 
bound  not  to  depart  from  that  resolution,  and,  rather 
than  expose  himself  to  the  slightest  imputation,  he  chose 
to  forego  all  the  advantages  which  were  the  certain  con- 
sequences of  a  retreat,  and  determined  to  wait  for  the 
imperialists  before  the  walls  of  Pavia.15 

The  imperial  generals  found  the  French  so  strongly 
intrenched  that,  notwithstanding  the  powerful  motives 
which  urged  them  on,  they  hesitated  long  before  they 
ventured  to  attack  them ;  but  at  last  the  necessities  of 
the  besieged,  and  the  murmurs  of  their  own  soldiers, 

18  Guic.,  lib.  xv.  291. 


BOOK  iv.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  615 

obliged  them  to  put  every  thing  to  hazard.  Never  did 
armies  engage  with  greater  ardour,  or  with  a  higher 
opinion  of  the  importance  of  the  battle  which  they 
were  going  to  fight ;  never  were  troops  more  strongly 
animated  with  emulation,  national  antipathy,  mutual 
resentment,  and  all  the  passions  which  inspire  obstinate 
bravery.  On  the  one  hand,  a  gallant  young  monarch, 
seconded  by  a  generous  nobility,  and  followed  by  sub- 
jects to  whose  natural  impetuosity  indignation  at  the 
opposition  which  they  had  encountered  added  new  force, 
contended  for  victory  and  honour.  On  the  other  side, 
troops  more  completely  disciplined,  and  conducted  by 
generals  of  greater  abilities,  fought  from  necessity,  with 
courage  heightened  by  despair.  The  imperialists,  how- 
ever, were  unable  to  resist  the  first  efforts  of  the  French 
valour,  and  their  firmest  battalions  began  to  give  way. 
But  the  fortune  of  the  day  was  quickly  changed.  The 
Swiss  in  the  service  of  France,  unmindful  of  the  reputa- 
tion of  their  country  for  fidelity  and  martial  glory, 
abandoned  their  post  in  a  cowardly  manner.  Leyva, 
with  his  garrison,  sallied  out  and  attacked  the  rear  of 
the  French,  during  the  heat  of  the  action,  with  such 
fury  as  threw  it  into  confusion ;  and  Pescara,  falling  on 
their  cavalry  with  the  imperial  horse,  among  whom  he  had 
prudently  intermingled  a  considerable  number  of  Spanish 
foot,  armed  with  the  heavy  muskets  then  in  use,  broke 
this  formidable  body,  by  an  unusual  method  of  attack, 
against  which  they  were  wholly  unprovided.  The  rout 
became  universal ;  and  resistance  ceased  in  almost  every 
part  but  where  the  king  was  in  person,  who  fought 
now  not  for  fame  or  victory,  but  for  safety.  Though 
wounded  in  several  places,  and  thrown  from  his  horse, 
which  was  killed  under  him,  Francis  defended  himself 
on  foot  with  an  heroic  courage.  Many  of  his  bravest 
officers,  gathering  round  him,  and  endeavouring  to  save 
his  life  at  the  expense  of  their  own,  fell  at  his  feet. 


516  BEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  iv. 


^  *Vse  was  Bonnivet,  the  author  of  this  great 
calamity,  who  alone  died  unlamented.  The  king,  ex- 
hausted with  fatigue,  and  scarcely  capable  of  further 
resistance,  was  left  almost  alone,  exposed  to  the  fury  of 
some  Spanish  soldiers,  strangers  to  his  rank  and  enraged 
at  his  obstinacy.  At  that  moment  came  up  Pomperant, 
a  French  gentleman  who  had  entered  together  with 
Bourbon  into  the  emperor's  service,  and,  placing  him- 
self by  the  side  of  the  monarch  against  whom  he  had 
rebelled,  assisted  in  protecting  him  from  the  violence  of 
the  soldiers,  at  the  same  time  beseeching  him  to  sur- 
render to  Bourbon,  who  was  not  far  distant.  Imminent 
as  the  danger  was  which  now  surrounded  Francis,  he 
rejected  with  indignation  the  thoughts  of  an  action 
which  would  have  afforded  such  matter  of  triumph  to 
his  traitorous  subject,  and,  calling  for  Lannoy,  who 
happened  likewise  to  be  near  at  hand,  gave  up  his  sword 
to  him;  which  he,  kneeling  to  kiss  the  king's  hand, 
received  with  profound  respect,  and,  taking  his  own 
sword  from  his  side,  presented  it  to  him,  saying  "  that  it 
did  not  become  so  great  a  monarch  to  remain  disarmed 
in  the  presence  of  one  of  the  emperor's  subjects."  16 
[February  24,  1525.] 

Ten  thousand  men  fell  on  this  day,  one  of  the  most 
fatal  France  had  ever  seen.  Among  these  were  many 
noblemen  of  the  highest  distinction,  who  chose  rather 
to  perish  than  to  turn  their  backs  with  dishonour.  Not 
a  few  were  taken  prisoners,  of  whom  the  most  illus- 
trious was  Henry  d'Albret,  the  unfortunate  king  of 
Navarre.  A  small  body  of  the  rear-guard  made  it,? 
escape,  under  the  command  of  the  duke  of  Alen^on  ; 
the  feeble  garrison  of  Milan,  on  the  first  news  of  the 
defeat,  retired,  without  being  pursued,  by  another  road  ; 

16  Guic.,  lib.  xv.  292.  —  (Euv.  de  etc.—  P.  Mart.  Ep.  805,  810.  — 
Brant.,  vi.  355.  —  Me'm.  de  Bellay,  Ruscelli,  Lettere  de'  Principi,  ii.  p. 
p.  90.—  Sandoval,  Hist.,  i  638,  70.—  Ulloa,  Vitadi  C:irl.>  V..  •>.  98. 


BOOK  iv.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH  517 

and  in  two  weeks  after  the  battle  not  a  Frenchman 
remained  in  Italy. 

Lannoy,  though  he  treated  Francis  with  all  the  out- 
ward marks  of  honour  due  to  his  rank  and  character, 
guarded  him  with  the  utmost  attention.  He  was  soli- 
citous not  only  to  prevent  any  possibility  of  his  escaping, 
but  afraid  that  his  own  troops  might  seize  his  person 
and  detain  it  as  the  best  security  for  the  payment  of 
their  arrears.  In  order  to  provide  against  both  these 
dangers,  he  conducted  Francis,  the  day  after  the  battle, 
to  the  strong  castle  of  Pizzichitone,  near  Cremona,  com- 
mitting him  to  the  custody  of  Don  Ferdinand  Alarcon, 
general  of  the  Spanish  infantry,  an  officer  of  great  bravery 
and  of  strict  honour,  but  remarkable  for  that  severe  and 
scrupulous  vigilance  which  such  a  trust  required. 

Francis,  who  formed  a  judgment  of  the  emperor's 
dispositions  by  his  own,  was  extremely  desirous  that 
Charles  should  be  informed  of  his  situation,  fondly 
hoping  that  from  his  generosity  or  sympathy  he  should 
obtain  speedy  relief.  The  imperial  generals  were  no 
less  impatient  to  give  their  sovereign  an  early  account 
of  the  decisive  victory  which  they  had  gained,  and  to 
receive  his  instructions  with  regard  to  their  future  con- 
duct. As  the  most  certain  and  expeditious  method  of 
conveying  intelligence  to  Spain,  at  that  season  of  the 
year,  was  by  land,  Francis  gave  the  Commendador 
Pennalosa,  who  was  charged  with  Lannoy's  despatches, 
a  passport  to  travel  through  France. 

Charles  received  the  account  of  this  signal  and  un- 
expected success  that  had  crowned  his  arms  with  a 
moderation  which,  if  it  had  been  real,  would  have  done 
him  more  honour  than  the  greatest  victory.  Without 
uttering  one  word  expressive  of  exultation  or  of  intem- 
perate joy,  he  retired  immediately  into  his  chapel,  and, 
having  spent  an  hour  in  offering  up  his  thanksgivings  to 
Heaven,  returned  to  the  presence-chamber,  which  by 


518  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  r» 

that  time  was  filled  with  grandees  and  foreign  ambas- 
sadors, assembled  in  order  to  congratulate  him.  He 
accepted  of  their  compliments  with  a  modest  deport- 
ment ;  he  lamented  the  misfortune  of  the  captive  king, 
as  a  striking  example  of  the  sad  reverse  of  fortune  to 
which  the  most  powerful  monarchs  are  subject ;  he  for- 
bade any  public  rejoicings,  as  indecent  in  a  war  carried 
on  among  Christians,  reserving  them  until  he  should 
obtain  a  victory  equally  illustrious  over  the  infidels ;  and 
seemed  to  take  pleasure  in  the  advantage  which  he  had 
gained  only  as  it  would  prove  the  occasion  of  restoring 
peace  to  Christendom.17 

Charles,  however,  had  already  begun  to  form  schemes 
in  his  own  mind  which  little  suited  such  external  appear- 
ances. Ambition,  not  generosity,  was  the  ruling  passion 
in  his  mind ;  and  the  victory  at  Pavia  opened  such  new 
and  unbounded  prospects  of  gratifying  it  as  allured  him 
with  irresistible  force ;  but,  it  being  no  easy  matter  to 
execute  the  vast  designs  which  he  meditated,  he  thought 
it  necessary,  while  proper  measures  were  taken  for  that 
purpose,  to  affect  the  greatest  moderation,  hoping  under 
that  veil  to  conceal  his  real  intentions  from  the  other 
princes  of  Europe. 

Meanwhile,  France  was  filled  with  consternation.  The 
king  himself  had  early  transmitted  an  account  of  the  rout 
at  Pavia,  in  a  letter  to  his  mother,  delivered  by  Pennalosa, 
which  contained  only  these  words :  "  Madam,  all  is  lost, 
except  our  honour."  The  officers  who  made  their  escape, 
when  they  arrived  from  Italy,  brought  such  a  melancholy 
detail  of  particulars  as  made  all  ranks  of  men  sensibly 
feel  the  greatness  and  extent  of  the  calamity.  France, 
without  its  sovereign,  without  money  in  her  treasury, 
without  an  army,  without  generals  to  command  it,  and 
encompassed  on  all  sides  by  a  victorious  and  active 
enemy,  seemed  to  be  on  the  very  brink  of  destruction. 

17  Sandoval,  Hiat.,  L  611.— Ulloa,  Vita  di  Carlo  V.,  p.  110. 


BOOK  iv.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  519 

But  on  that  occasion  the  great  abilities  of  Louise  the 
regent  saved  the  kingdom  which  the  violence  of  her  pas- 
sions had  more  than  once  exposed  to  the  greatest  danger. 
Instead  of  giving  herself  up  to  such  lamentations  as  were 
natural  to  a  woman  so  remarkable  for  her  maternal  ten- 
derness, she  discovered  all  the  foresight  and  exerted  all 
the  activity  of  a  consummate  politician.  She  assembled 
the  nobles  at  Lyons,  and  animated  them  by  her  example, 
no  less  than  by  her  words,  with  such  zeal  in  defence  of 
their  country  as  its  present  situation  required.  She  col- 
lected the  remains  of  the  army  which  had  served  in 
Italy,  ransomed  the  prisoners,  paid  the  arrears,  and  put 
them  in  a  condition  to  take  the  field.  She  levied  new 
troops,  provided  for  the  security  of  the  frontiers,  and 
raised  sums  sufficient  for  defraying  these  extraordinary 
expenses.  Her  chief  care,  however,  was  to  appease  the 
resentment  or  to  gain  the  friendship  of  the  king  of  Eng- 
land ;  and  from  that  quarter  the  first  ray  of  comfort  broke 
in  upon  the  French. 

Though  Henry,  in  entering  into  alliances  with  Charles 
or  Francis,  seldom  followed  any  regular  or  concerted  plan 
of  policy,  but  was  influenced  chiefly  by  the  caprice  of 
temporary  passions,  such  occurrences  often  happened  as 
recalled  his  attention  towards  that  equal  balance  of 
power  which  it  was  necessary  to  keep  between  the  two 
contending  potentates,  the  preservation  of  which  he 
always  boasted  to  be  his  peculiar  office.  He  had  ex- 
pected that  his  union  with  the  emperor  might  afford  him 
an  opportunity  of  recovering  some  part  of  those  territories 
in  France  which  had  belonged  to  his  ancestors,  and  for  the 
Bake  of  such  an  acquisition  he  did  not  scruple  to  give  his 
assistance  towards  raising  Charles  to  a  considerable  pre- 
eminence above  Francis.  He  had  never  dreamt,  how- 
ever, of  any  event  so  decisive  and  so  fatal  as  the  victory 
at  Pavia,  which  seemed  not  only  to  have  broken,  but  to 
have  annihilated,  the  power  of  one  of  the  rivals ;  so  that 


520  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  iv. 

the  prospect  of  the  sudden  and  entire  revolution  which 
this  would  occasion  in  the  political  system  filled  him  with 
the  most  disquieting  apprehensions.  He  saw  all  Europe 
in  danger  of  being  overrun  by  an  ambitious  prince,  to 
whose  power  there  now  remained  no  counterpoise ;  and, 
though  he  himself  might  at  first  be  admitted,  in  quality 
of  an  ally,  to  some  share  in  the  spoils  of  the  captive 
monarch,  it  was  easy  to  discern  that  with  regard  to  the 
manner  of  making  the  partition,  as  well  as  his  security 
for  keeping  possession  of  what  should  be  allotted  him, 
he  must  absolutely  depend  upon  the  will  of  a  con- 
federate, to  whose  forces  his  own  bore  no  proportion. 
He  was  sensible  that  if  Charles  were  permitted  to  add 
any  considerable  part  of  France  to  the  vast  dominions  of 
which  he  was  already  master,  his  neighbourhood  would 
be  much  more  formidable  to  England  than  that  of  the 
ancient  French  kings ;  while  at  the  same  time  the  proper 
balance  on  the  Continent,  to  which  England  owed  both 
its  safety  and  importance,  would  be  entirely  lost.  Con- 
cern for  the  situation  of  the  unhappy  monarch  co-ope- 
rated with  these  political  considerations;  his  gallant 
behaviour  in  the  battle  of  Pavia  had  excited  a  high 
degree  of  admiration,  which  never  fails  of  augmenting 
sympathy ;  and  Henry,  naturally  susceptible  of  generous 
sentiments,  was  fond  of  appearing  as  the  deliverer  of  a 
vanquished  enemy  from  a  state  of  captivity.  The  passions 
of  the  English  minister  seconded  the  inclinations  of  the 
monarch.  Wolsey,  who  had  not  forgotten  the  disap- 
pointment of  his  hopes  in  two  successive  conclaves, 
which  he  imputed  chiefly  to  the  emperor,  thought  this 
a  proper  opportunity  of  taking  revenge;  and  Louise 
courting  the  friendship  of  England  with  such  flattering 
submissions  as  were  no  less  agreeable  to  the  king  than 
to  the  cardinal,  Henry  gave  her  secret  assurances  that  he 
would  not  lend  his  aid  towards  oppressing  France  in  its 
present  helpless  state,  and  obliged  her  to  promise  that 


BOOK  iv.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  521 

she  would  not  consent  to  dismember  the  kingdom,  even 
in  order  to  procure  her  son's  liberty.18 

But,  as  Henry's  connections  with  the  emperor  made 
it  necessary  to  act  in  such  a  manner  as  to  save  appear- 
ances, he  ordered  public  rejoicings  to  be  made  in  his 
dominions  for  the  success  of  the  imperial  arms ;  and,  as 
if  he  had  been  eager  to  seize  the  present  opportunity  of 
ruining  the  French  monarchy,  he  sent  ambassadors  to 
Madrid  to  congratulate  with  Charles  upon  his  victory,  to 
put  him  in  mind  that  he,  as  his  ally,  engaged  in  one 
common  cause,  was  entitled  to  partake  in  the  fruits  of 
it,  and  to  require  that,  in  compliance  with  the  terms  of 
their  confederacy,  he  would  invade  Guienne  with  a 
powerful  army,  in  order  to  give  him  possession  of  that 
province.  At  the  same  time,  he  offered  to  send  the 
princess  Mary  into  Spain  or  the  Low  Countries,  that  she 
might  be  educated  under  the  emperor's  direction  until 
the  conclusion  of  the  marriage  agreed  on  between  them ; 
and  in  return  for  that  mark  of  his  confidence  he  insisted 
that  Francis  should  be  delivered  to  him,  in  consequence 
of  that  article  in  the  treaty  of  Bruges  whereby  each 
of  the  contracting  parties  was  bound  to  surrender  all 
usurpers  to  him  whose  rights  they  had  invaded.  It 
was  impossible  that  Henry  could  expect  that  the  em- 
peror would  listen  to  these  extravagant  demands,  which 
it  was  neither  his  interest  nor  in  his  power  to  grant. 
They  appear  evidently  to  have  been  made  with  no  other 
intention  than  to  furnish  him  with  a  decent  pretext  for 
entering  into  such  engagements  with  France  as  the  junc- 
ture required.19 

It  was  among  the  Italian  states,  however,  that  the 
victory  at  Pavia  occasioned  the  greatest  alarm  and 
terror.  That  balance  of  power  on  which  they  relied 
for  their  security,  and  which  it  had  been  the  constant 

18  Mem.  de  Bellay,  94.— Guic.,  lib.  xvt  318.— Herbert 
M  Herbert,  p   64. 


522  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  IT. 

object  of  all  their  negotiations  and  refinements  to 
maintain,  was  destroyed  in  a  moment.  They  were  ex- 
posed, by  their  situation,  to  feel  the  first  effects  of  that 
uncontrolled  authority  which  Charles  had  acquired. 
They  observed  many  symptoms  of  a  boundless  ambition 
in  that  young  prince,  and  were  sensible  that,  as  em- 
peror, or  king  of  Naples,  he  might  not  only  form 
dangerous  pretensions  upon  each  of  their  territories, 
but  might  invade  them  with  great  advantage.  They 
deliberated,  therefore,  with  much  solicitude  concerning 
the  means  of  raising  such  a  force  as  might  obstruct 
his  progress;20  but  their  consultations,  conducted  with 
little  union  and  executed  with  less  vigour,  had  no  effect. 
Clement,  instead  of  pursuing  the  measures  which 
he  had  concerted  with  the  Venetians  for  securing  the 
liberty  of  Italy,  was  so  intimidated  by  Lannoy's  threats, 
or  overcome  by  his  promises,  that  he  entered  into  a 
separate  treaty,  binding  himself  to  advance  a  consider- 
able sum  to  the  emperor,  in  return  for  certain  emolu- 
ments which  he  was  to  receive  from  him.  The  money 
was  instantly  paid;  but  Charles  afterwards  refused  to 
ratify  the  treaty,  and  the  pope  remained  exposed  at 
once  to  infamy  and  to  ridicule :  to  the  former,  because 
he  had  deserted  the  public  cause  for  his  private  interest ; 
to  the  latter,  because  he  had  been  a  loser  by  that  un- 
worthy action.21 

How  dishonourable  soever  the  artifice  might  be  which 
was  employed  in  order  to  defraud  the  pope  of  this  sum, 
it  came  very  seasonably  into  the  viceroy's  hands,  and 
put  it  in  his  power  to  extricate  himself  out  of  an  immi- 
nent danger.  Soon  after  the  defeat  of  the  French  army, 
the  German  troops,  which  had  defended  Pavia  with  such 
meritorious  courage  and  perseverance,  growing  insolent 

20  Quic.,  lib.  xvi.  300. — Ruscelli,  21  Guic.,  lib.  xvi.  305. — Mauro- 
Lettere  de'  Princ.,  ii.  74,  76,  etc.  ceni  Histor.  Venet,  ap.  Istorici 
— Thuani  Hist.,  lib.  i.  c.  11.  delle  Cose  Venez.,  v.  131,  136, 


BOOK  iv.]  EMPEEOE  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  523 

upon  the  fame  that  they  had  acquired,  and  impatient  of 
relying  any  longer  on  fruitless  promises,  with  which 
they  had  been  so  often  amused,  rendered  themselves 
masters  of  the  town,  with  a  resolution  to  keep  posses- 
sion of  it  as  a  security  for  the  payment  of  their  arrears ; 
and  the  rest  of  the  army  discovered  a  much  stronger 
inclination  to  assist  than  to  punish  the  mutineers.  By 
dividing  among  them  the  money  exacted  from  the  pope, 
Lannoy  quieted  the  tumultuous  Germans ;  but,  though 
this  satisfied  their  present  demands,  he  had  so  little  pros- 
pect of  being  able  to  pay  them  or  his  other  forces 
regularly  for  the  future,,  and  was  under  such  continual 
apprehensions  of  their  seizing  the  person  of  the  captive 
king,  that  not  long  after  he  was  obliged  to  dismiss  all 
the  Germans  and  Italians  in  the  imperial  service.22 
Thus,  from  a  circumstance  that  now  appears  very 
singular,  but  arising  naturally  from  the  constitution 
of  most  European  governments  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, while  Charles  was  suspected  by  all  his  neighbours 
of  aiming  at  universal  monarchy,  and  while  he  was 
really  forming  vast  projects  of  this  kind,  his  revenues 
were  so  limited  that  he  could  not  keep  on  foot  his  vic- 
torious army,  though  it  did  not  exceed  twenty-four 
thousand  men. 

During  these  transactions,  Charles,  whose  pretensions 
to  moderation  and  disinterestedness  were  soon  forgotten, 
deliberated  with  the  utmost  solicitude  how  he  might 
derive  the  greatest  advantages  from  the  misfortunes  of 
his  adversary.  Some  of  his  councillors  advised  him  to 
treat  Francis  with  the  magnanimity  that  became  a  victo- 
rious prince,  and,  instead  of  taking  advantage  of  his 
situation  to  impose  rigorous  conditions,  to  dismiss  him 
on  such  equal  terms  as  would  bind  him  for  ever  to  his 
interest  by  the  ties  of  gratitude  and  affection,  more 
forcible  as  well  as  more  permanent  than  any  which 

12  Guic.,  lib.  xvi.  p.  302. 


524  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  iv. 

could  be  formed  by  extorted  oaths  and  involuntary 
stipulations.  Such  an  exertion  of  generosity  is  not, 
perhaps,  to  be  expected  in  the  conduct  of  political 
affairs,  and  it  was  far  too  refined  for  that  prince  to 
tvhom  it  was  proposed.  The  more  obvious  but  less 
splendid  scheme,  of  endeavouring  to  make  the  utmost 
of  Francis's  calamity,  had  a  greater  number  in  the 
council  to  recommend  it,  and  suited  better  with  the 
emperor's  genius.  But,  though  Charles  adopted  this 
plan,  he  seems  not  to  have  executed  it  in  the  most 
proper  manner.  Instead  of  making  one  great  effort 
to  penetrate  into  France  with  all  the  forces  of  Spain 
and  the  Low  Countries,  instead  of  crushing  the  Italian 
states  before  they  recovered  from  the  consternation 
which  the  success  of  his  arms  had  occasioned,  he  had 
recourse  to  the  artifices  of  intrigue  and  negotiation. 
This  proceeded  partly  from  necessity,  partly  from  the 
natural  disposition  of  his  mind.  The  situation  of  his 
finances  at  that  time  rendered  it  extremely  difficult  to 
carry  on  any  extraordinary  armament ;  and  he  himself, 
having  never  appeared  at  the  head  of  his  armies,  the 
command  of  which  he  had  hitherto  committed  to  his 
generals,  was  averse  to  bold  and  martial  councils,  and 
trusted  more  to  the  arts  with  which  he  was  acquainted. 
He  laid,  besides,  too  much  stress  upon  the  victory  of 
Pavia,  as  if  by  that  event  the  strength  of  France  had 
been  annihilated,  its  resources  exhausted,  and  the  king- 
dom itself,  no  less  than  the  person  of  its  monarch,  had 
been  subjected  to  his  power. 

Full  of  this  opinion,  he  determined  to  set  the  highest 
price  upon  Francis's  freedom,  and,  having  ordered  the 
Count  dc  Kceux  to  visit  the  captive  king  in  his  name, 
he  instructed  him  to  propose  the  following  articles  as  the 
conditions  on  which  he  would  grant  him  his  liberty : 
that  he  should  restore  Burgundy  to  the  emperor,  from 
whose  ancestors  it  had  been  unjustly  wrested ;  that  hf 


BOOK  iv.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  525 

should  surrender  Provence  and  Dauphine",  that  they 
might  be  erected  into  an  independent  kingdom  for  the 
Constable  Bourbon ;  that  he  should  make  full  satisfac- 
tion to  the  king  of  England  for  all  his  claims,  and  finally 
renounce  the  pretensions  of  France  to  Naples,  Milan, 
or  any  other  territory  in  Italy.  When  Francis,  who 
had  hitherto  flattered  himself  that  he  should  be  treated 
by  the  emperor  with  the  generosity  becoming  one  great 
prince  towards  another,  heard  these  rigorous  conditions, 
he  was  so  transported  with  indignation  that,  drawing 
his  dagger  hastily,  he  cried  out,  "  'Twere  better  that  a 
king  should  die  thus."  Alarcon,  alarmed  at  his  vehe- 
mence, laid  hold  on  his  hand ;  but,  though  he  soon 
recovered  greater  composure,  he  still  declared,  in  the 
most  solemn  manner,  that  he  would  rather  remain  a 
prisoner  during  life  than  purchase  liberty  by  such  igno- 
minious concessions.23 

This  mortifying  discovery  of  the  emperor's  intentions 
greatly  augmented  Francis's  chagrin  and  impatience 
under  his  confinement,  and  must  have  driven  him  to 
absolute  despair,  if  he  had  not  laid  hold  of  the  onlj 
thing  which  could  still  administer  any  comfort  to  him. 
He  persuaded  himself  that  the  conditions  which  Eoeux 
had  proposed  did  not  flow  originally  from  Charles  him- 
self, but  were  dictated  by  the  rigorous  policy  of  his 
Spanish  council,  and  that  therefore  he  might  hope  in 
one  personal  interview  with  him  to  do  more  towards 
hastening  his  own  deliverance  than  could  be  effected 
by  long  negotiations  passing  through  the  subordinate 
hands  of  his  ministers.  Relying  on  this  supposition, 
which  proceeded  from  too  favourable  an  opinion  of  the 
emperor's  character,  he  offered  to  visit  him  in  Spain, 
and  was  willing  to  be  carried  thither  as  a  spectacle  to 
that  haughty  nation.  Lannoy  employed  all  his  address 
to  confirm  him  in  these  sentiments,  and  concerted  with 

28  M<hn.  de  Bellay,  94.— Ferreras,  Hist,  ix.  43. 


526  REIGX  OF  THE  [BOOK  IT. 

him  in  secret  the  manner  of  executing  this  resolution. 
Francis  was  so  eager  on  a  scheme  which  seemed  to  open 
some  prospect  of  liberty,  that  he  furnished  the  galleys 
necessary  for  conveying  him  to  Spain,  Charles  being  at 
this  time  unable  to  fit  out  a  squadron  for  that  purpose. 
The  viceroy,  without  communicating  his  intentions  either 
to  Bourbon  or  Pescara,  conducted  his  prisoner  towards 
Genoa,  under  pretence  of  transporting  him  by  sea  to 
Naples ;  though  soon  after  they  set  sail  he  ordered  the 
pilots  to  steer  directly  for  Spain ;  but,  the  wind  happen- 
ing to  carry  them  near  the  French  coast,  the  unfortunate 
monarch  had  a  full  prospect  of  his  own  dominions, 
towards  which  he  cast  many  a  sorrowful  and  desiring 
look.  They  landed,  however,  in  a  few  days  at  Barce- 
lona, and  soon  after  Francis  was  lodged,  by  the  emperor's 
command,  in  the  alcazar  of  Madrid,  under  the  care  of 
the  vigilant  Alarcon,  who  guarded  him  with  as  much 
circumspection  as  ever.24 

A  few  days  after  Francis's  arrival  at  Madrid,  and 
when  he  began  to  be  sensible  of  his  having  relied  with- 
out foundation  on  the  emperor's  generosity,  Henry  VIII. 
concluded  a  treaty  with  the  regent  of  France,  which 
afforded  him  some  hope  of  liberty  from  another  quarter. 
Henry's  extravagant  demands  had  been  received  ai 
Madrid  with  that  neglect  which  they  deserved  and 
which  he  probably  expected.  Charles,  intoxicated  with 
prosperity,  no  longer  courted  him  in  that  respectful  and 
submissive  manner  which  pleased  his  haughty  temper. 
Wolsey,  no  less  haughty  than  his  master,  was  highly 
irritated  at  the  emperor's  discontinuing  his  wonted 
caresses  and  professions  of  friendship  to  himself.  These 
slight  offences,  added  to  the  weighty  considerations 
formerly  mentioned,  induced  Henry  to  enter  into  a  de- 
fensive alliance  with  Louise,  in  which  all  the  differences 
between  him  and  her  son  were  adjusted ;  at  the  same 

24  M&n.  de  Bellay,  95. — P.  Martyr.  Ep.  ult — Guic.,  lib.  xvi.  323. 


BOOK  iv.]          EMPEBOR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  527 

time  he  engaged  that  he  would  employ  his  best  offices 
in  order  to  procure  the  deliverance  of  his  new  ally  from 
a  state  of  captivity.25 

While  the  open  defection  of  such  a  powerful  con- 
federate affected  Charles  with  deep  concern,  a  secret 
conspiracy  was  carrying  on  in  Italy,  which  threatened 
him  with  consequences  still  more  fatal.  The  restless 
and  intriguing  genius  of  Morone,  chancellor  of  Milan, 
gave  rise  to  this.  His  revenge  had  been  amply  gratified 
by  the  expulsion  of  the  French  out  of  Italy,  and  his 
vanity  no  less  soothed  by  the  re-establishment  of  Sforza, 
to  whose  interest  he  had  attached  himself,  in  the  duchy 
of  Milan.  The  delays,  however,  and  evasions  of  the 
imperial  court  in  granting  Sforza  the  investiture  of  his 
new-acquired  territories  had  long  alarmed  Morone ;  these 
were  repeated  so  often,  and  with  such  apparent  artifice, 
as  became  a  full  proof  to  his  suspicious  mind  that  the 
emperor  intended  to  strip  his  master  of  that  rich  country 
which  he  had  conquered  in  his  name.  Though  Charles, 
in  order  to  quiet  the  pope  and  Venetians,  no  less  jealous 
of  his  designs  than  Morone,  gave  Sforza  at  last  the 
investiture  which  had  been  so  long  desired,  the  charter 
was  clogged  with  so  many  reservations  and  subjected 
him  to  such  grievous  burdens  as  rendered  the  duke  of 
Milan  a  dependant  on  the  emperor,  rather  than  a  vassal 
of  the  empire,  and  afforded  him  hardly  any  other  secu- 
rity for  his  possessions  than  the  good  pleasure  of  an 
ambitious  superior.  Such  an  accession  of  power  as 
would  have  accrued  from  the  addition  of  the  Milanese 
to  the  kingdom  of  Naples  was  considered  by  Morone  as 
fatal  to  the  liberties  of  Italy,  no  less  than  to  his  own 
importance.  Full  of  this  idea,  he  began  to  revolve  in 
his  mind  the  possibility  of  rescuing  Italy  from  the  yoke 
of  foreigners, — the  darling  scheme,  as  has  been  already 
observed,  of  the  Italian  politicians  in  that  age,  and 

*  Herbert.—  Fiddes's  Life  of  Wolsey,  337. 


628  REIGN  OP  THE  [BOOK  iv. 

which  it  was  the  great  object  of  their  ambition  to  ac- 
complish. If  to  the  glory  of  having  been  the  chief 
instrument  of  driving  the  French  out  of  Milan  he  could 
add  that  of  delivering  Naples  from  the  dominion  of  the 
Spaniards,  he  thought  that  nothing  would  be  wanting  to 
complete  his  fame.  His  fertile  genius  soon  suggested  to 
him  a  project  for  that  purpose, — a  difficult,  indeed,  and 
daring  one,  but  for  that  very  reason  more  agreeable  to 
his  bold  and  enterprising  temper. 

Bourbon  and  Pescara  were  equally  enraged  at 
Lannoy's  carrying  the  French  king  into  Spain  without 
their  knowledge.  The  former,  being  afraid  that  the 
two  monarchs  might,  in  his  absence,  conclude  some 
treaty  in  which  his  interests  would  be  entirely  sacrificed, 
hastened  to  Madrid,  in  order  to  guard  against  that 
danger.  The  latter,  on  whom  the  command  of  the 
army  now  devolved,  was  obliged  to  remain  in  Italy; 
but  in  every  company  he  gave  vent  to  his  indignation 
against  the  viceroy,  in  expressions  full  of  rancour  and 
contempt ;  he  accused  him,  in  a  letter  to  the  emperor, 
of  cowardice  in  the  time  of  danger,  and  of  insolence 
after  a  victory,  towards  the  obtaining  of  which  he  had 
contributed  nothing  either  by  his  valour  or  his  conduct ; 
nor  did  he  abstain  from  bitter  complaints  against  the 
emperor  himself,  who  had  not  discovered,  as  he  im- 
agined, a  sufficient  sense  of  his  merit  nor  bestowed  any 
adequate  reward  on  his  services.  It  was  on  this  disgust 
of  Pescara  that  Morone  founded  his  whole  system.  He 
knew  the  boundless  ambition  of  his  nature,  the  great 
extent  of  his  abilities  in  peace  as  well  as  war,  and  the 
intrepidity  of  his  mind,  capable  alike  of  undertaking  and 
of  executing  the  most  desperate  designs.  The  canton- 
ment of  the  Spanish  troops  on  the  frontier  of  the 
Milanese  gave  occasion  to  many  interviews  between 
him  and  Morone,  in  which  the  latter  took  care  fre- 
quently to  turn  the  conversation  to  the  transactions 


iv.]          EMPEROR  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  529 

subsequent  to  the  battle  of  Pavia,  a  subject  upon  which 
the  marquis  always  entered  willingly  and  with  passion  ; 
and  Morone,  observing  his  resentment  to  be  uniformly 
violent,  artfully  pointed  out  and  aggravated  every  cir- 
cumstance that  could  increase  its  fury.  He  painted  in 
the  strongest  colours  the  emperor's  want  of  discern- 
ment, as  well  as  of  gratitude,  in  preferring  Lannoy  to 
him,  and  in  allowing  that  presumptuous  Fleming  to  dis- 
pose of  the  captive  king  without  consulting  the  man 
to  whose  bravery  and  wisdom  Charles  was  indebted 
for  the  glory  of  having  a  formidable  rival  in  his  power. 
Having  warmed  him  by  such  discourses,  he  then  began 
to  insinuate  that  now  was  the  time  to  be  avenged  for 
these  insults,  and  to  acquire  immortal  renown  as  the 
deliverer  of  his  country  from  the  oppression  of  strangers  ; 
that  the  states  of  Italy,  weary  of  the  ignominious  and 
intolerable  dominion  of  barbarians,  were  at  last  ready 
to  combine  in  order  to  vindicate  their  own  independence  ; 
that  their  eyes  were  fixed  on  him  as  the  only  leader 
whose  genius  and  good  fortune  could  insure  the  happy 
success  of  that  noble  enterprise;  that  the  attempt  was 
no  less  practicable  than  glorious,  it  being  in  his  power 
so  to  disperse  the  Spanish  infantry,  the  only  body  of 
the  emperor's  troops  that  remained  in  Italy,  through 
the  villages  of  the  Milanese,  that  in  one  night  they 
might  be  destroyed  by  the  people,  who,  having  suf- 
fered much  from  their  exactions  and  insolence,  would 
gladly  undertake  this  service  ;  that  he  might  then  with- 
out opposition  take  possession  of  the  throne  of  Naples, 
the  station  destined  for  him,  and  a  reward  not  un- 
worthy the  restorer  of  liberty  to  Italy;  that  the  pope, 
of  whom  that  kingdom  held,  and  whose  predecessors 
had  disposed  of  it  on  many  former  occasions,  would 
willingly  grant  him  the  right  of  investiture;  that  the 
Venetians,  the  Florentines,  the  duke  of  Milan,  to  whom 
ne  had  communicated  the  scheme,  together  with  the 


You    i, 


530  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  nr. 

French,  would  be  the  guarantees  of  his  right ;  that  the 
Neapolitans  would  naturally  prefer  the  government  of 
one  of  their  countrymen,  whom  they  loved  and  admired, 
to  that  odious  dominion  of  strangers,  to  which  they  had 
been  so  long  subjected  ;  and  that  the  emperor,  astonished 
at  a  blow  so  unexpected,  would  find  that  he  had 
neither  troops  nor  money  to  resist  such  a  powerful 
confederacy.26 

Pescara,  amazed  at  the  boldness  and  extent  of  the 
scheme,  listened  attentively  to  Morone,  but  with  the 
countenance  of  a  man  lost  in  profound  and  anxious 
thought.  On  the  one  hand,  the  infamy  of  betraying 
his  sovereign,  under  whom  he  bore  such  high  command, 
deterred  him  from  the  attempt ;  on  the  other,  the  pros- 
pect of  obtaining  a  crown  allured  him  to  venture  upon 
it.  After  continuing  a  short  space  in  suspense,  the 
least  commendable  motives,  as  is  usual  after  such  de- 
liberations, prevailed,  and  ambition  triumphed  over 
honour.  In  order,  however,  to  throw  a  colour  of 
decency  on  his  conduct,  he  insisted  that  some  learned 
casuists  should  give  their  opinion,  "Whether  it  was 
lawful  for  a  subject  to  take  arms  against  his  immediate 
sovereign,  in  obedience  to  the  lord  paramount  of  whom 
the  kingdom  itself  was  held  ? "  Such  a  resolution  of 
the  case  as  he  expected  was  soon  obtained  from  the 
divines  and  civilians  both  of  Eome  and  Milan :  the 
negotiation  went  forward ;  and  measures  seemed  to  be 
taken  with  great  spirit  for  the  speedy  execution  of  the 
design. 

During  this  interval,  Pescara,  either  shocked  at  the 
treachery  of  the  action  that  he  was  going  to  commit, 
or  despairing  of  its  success,  began  to  entertain  thoughts 
of  abandoning  the  engagements  which  he  had  come 

i6  Guic.,  lib.  xvi  325. — Jovii  tere  de'  Princ.,  ii  91. — Thuani 
Vita  Davali,  p.  417. — (Euv.  de  Hist.  lib.  i.  c.  11. — P.  Heuter., 
Brant  me,  iv.  171. — Ruscelli,  Let-  Rer.  Austr.,  lib.  ix.  c.  3,  p.  207. 


POOR  iv.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  531 

under.  The  indisposition  of  Sforza,  who  happened  at 
that  time  to  be  taken  ill  of  a  distemper  which  was 
thought  mortal,  confirmed  his  resolution,  and  determined 
him  to  make  known  the  whole  conspiracy  to  the  emperor, 
deeming  it  more  prudent  to  expect  the  duchy  of  Milan 
from  him  as  the  reward  of  this  discovery  than  to  aim 
at  a  kingdom  to  be  purchased  by  a  series  of  crimes. 
This  resolution,  however,  proved  the  source  of  actions 
hardly  less  criminal  and  ignominious.  The  emperor, 
who  had  already  received  full  information  concerning 
the  conspiracy  from  other  hands,  seemed  to  be  highly 
pleased  with  Pescara's  fidelity,  and  commanded  him  to 
continue  his  intrigues  for  some  time  with  the  pope  and 
Sforza,  both  that  he  might  discover  their  intentions 
more  fully  and  that  he  might  be  able  to  convict  them 
of  the  crime  with  greater  certainty.  Pescara,  conscious 
of  guilt,  as  well  as  sensible  how  suspicious  his  long 
silence  must  have  appeared  at  Madrid,  durst  not  decline 
that  dishonourable  office,  and  was  obliged  to  act  the 
meanest  and  most  disgraceful  of  all  parts,  that  of 
seducing  with  a  purpose  to  betray.  Considering  the 
abilities  of  the  persons  with  whom  he  had  to  deal,  the 
part  was  scarcely  less  difficult  than  base ;  but  he  acted 
it  with  such  address  as  to  deceive  even  the  penetrating 
eye  of  Morone,  who,  relying  with  full  confidence  on  his 
sincerity,  visited  him  at  Novara  in  order  to  put  the  last 
hand  to  their  machinations.  Pescara  received  him  in 
an  apartment  where  Antonio  de  Leyva  was  placed 
behind  the  tapestry,  that  he  might  overhear  and  bear 
witness  to  their  conversation.  As  Morone  was  about  to 
take  leave,  that  officer  suddenly  appeared,  and  to  his 
astonishment  arrested  him  prisoner  in  the  emperor's 
name.  He  was  conducted  to  the  castle  of  Pavia ;  and 
Pescara,  who  had  so  lately  been  his  accomplice,  had  now 
the  assurance  to  interrogate  him  as  his  judge.  At  the 
same  time,  the  emperor  declared  Sforza  to  have  forfeited 

KMl 


532  EEIGN  OF  THE  LBO°K  rv. 

all  right  to  the  duchy  of  Milan  by  his  engaging  in  a  con- 
spiracy against  the  sovereign  of  whom  he  held  ;  Pescara, 
by  his  command,  seized  on  every  place  in  the  Milanese, 
except  the  castles  of  Cremona  and  Milan,  which,  the 
unfortunate  duke  attempting  to  defend,  were  closely 
blockaded  by  the  imperial  troops.27 

But  though  this  unsuccessful  conspiracy,  instead  of 
stripping  the  emperor  of  what  he  already  possessed  in 
Italy,  contributed  to  extend  his  dominions  in  that 
country,  it  showed  him  the  necessity  of  coming  to  some 
agreement  with  the  French  king,  unless  he  chose  to 
draw  on  himself  a  confederacy  of  all  Europe,  which  the 
progress  of  his  arms  and  his  ambition,  now  as  undis- 
guised as  it  was  boundless,  filled  with  general  alarm. 
He  had  not  hitherto  treated  Francis  with  the  generosity 
which  that  monarch  expected,  and  hardly  with  the 
decency  due  to  his  station.  Instead  of  displaying  the 
sentiments  becoming  a  great  prince,  Charles,  by  his 
mode  of  treating  Francis,  seems  to  have  acted  with  the 
mercenary  heart  of  a  corsair,  who  by  the  rigorous  usage 
of  his  prisoners  endeavours  to  draw  from  them  a  higher 
price  for  their  ransom.  The  captive  king  was  confined 
to  an  old  castle,  under  a  keeper  whose  formal  austerity 
of  manners  rendered  his  vigilance  still  more  disgusting. 
He  was  allowed  no  exercise  but  that  of  riding  on  a 
mule,  surrounded  with  armed  guards  on  horseback. 
Charles,  on  pretence  of  its  being  necessary  to  attend  the 
cortes  assembled  in  Toledo,  had  gone  to  reside  in  that 
city,  and  suffered  several  weeks  to  elapse  without 
visiting  Francis,  though  he  solicited  an  interview  with 
the  most  pressing  and  submissive  importunity.  So 
many  indignities  made  a  deep  impression  on  a  high- 
spirited  prince ;  he  began  to  lose  all  relish  for  his  usual 
amusements ;  his  natural  gaiety  of  temper  forsook  him  ; 
and,  after  languishing  for  some  time,  he  was  seized 

27  Guic.,  lib.  xvi.  329. — Jovii  Hist.,  319. — Chpella,  lib.  v.  p.  200. 


IV.OK  iv.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  533 

with  a  dangerous  fever,  during  the  violence  of  which 
he  complained  constantly  of  the  unexpected  and  un- 
princely  rigour  with  which  he  had  been  treated,  often 
exclaiming  that  now  the  emperor  would  have  the  satis- 
faction of  his  dying  a  prisoner  in  his  hands,  without 
having  once  deigned  to  see  his  face.  The  physicians 
at  last  despaired  of  his  life,  and  informed  the  emperor 
that  they  saw  no  hope  of  his  recovery  unless  he  were 
gratified  with  regard  to  that  point  on  which  he  seemed 
to  be  so  strongly  bent.  Charles,  solicitous  to  preserve 
a  life  with  which  all  his  prospects  of  further  advantage 
from  the  victory  of  Pavia  must  have  terminated,  imme- 
diately consulted  his  ministers  concerning  the  course  to 
be  taken.  In  vain  did  the  Chancellor  Gattinara,  the 
most  able  among  them,  represent  to  him  the  indecency 
of  his  visiting  Francis  if  he  did  not  intend  to  set  him  at 
liberty  immediately  upon  equal  terms ;  in  vain  did  he 
point  out  the  infamy  to  which  he  would  be  exposed  if 
avarice  or  ambition  should  prevail  on  him  to  give  the 
captive  monarch  this  mark  of  attention  and  sympathy, 
for  which  humanity  and  generosity  had  pleaded  so  long 
without  effect.  The  emperor,  less  delicate  or  less  soli- 
citous about  reputation  than  his  minister,  set  out  for 
Madrid  to  visit  his  prisoner.  The  interview  was  short ; 
Francis  being  too  weak  to  bear  a  long  conversation, 
Charles  accosted  him  in  terms  full  of  affection  and  re- 
sp^ct.  and  gave  him  such  promises  of  speedy  deliver- 
ance and  princely  treatment  as  would  have  reflected 
the  greatest  honour  upon  him  if  they  had  flowed  from 
another  source.  Francis  grasped  at  them  with  the 
eagerness  natural  in  his  situation,  and,  cheered  with 
this  gleam  of  hope,  began  to  revive  from  that  moment, 
recovering  rapidly  his  wonted  health.28 

He  had  soon  the  mortification  to  find-  that  his  con- 
fidence  in  the   emperor  was  not  better  founded  than 

28  Guic.,  lib.  xvi.  339. — Sandoval,  Hist.,  i.  665. 


534  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  iv. 

formerly.  Charles  returned  instantly  to  Toledo ;  all 
negotiations  were  carried  on  by  his  ministers;  and 
Francis  was  kept  in  as  strict  custody  as  ever.  A  new 
indignity,  and  that  very  galling,  was  added  to  all  those 
he  had  already  suffered.  Bourbon  arrived  in  Spain 
about  this  time.  Charles,  who  had  so  long  refused  to 
visit  the  king  of  France,  received  his  rebellious  subject 
with  the  most  studied  respect.  He  met  him  without 
the  gates  of  Toledo,  embracing  him  with  the  greatest 
affection,  and,  placing  him  on  his  left  hand,  conducted 
him  to  his  apartment.  These  marks  of  honour  to  him 
were  so  many  insults  to  the  unfortunate  monarch,  which 
he  felt  in  a  very  sensible  manner.  It  afforded  him  some 
consolation,  however,  to  observe  that  the  sentiments  of 
the  Spaniards  differed  widely  from  those  of  their  sove- 
reign. That  generous  people  detested  Bourbon's  crime. 
Notwithstanding  his  great  talents  and  important  services, 
they  shunned  all  intercourse  with  him  to  such  a  degree 
that,  Charles  having  desired  the  marquis  de  Villena 
to  permit  Bourbon  to  reside  in  his  palace  while  the 
court  remained  in  Toledo,  he  politely  replied,  "  That 
he  could  not  refuse  gratifying  his  sovereign  in  that 
request,"  but  added,  with  a  Castilian  dignity  of  mind, 
that  the  emperor  must  not  be  surprised  if,  the  moment 
the  constable  departed,  he  should  burn  to  the  ground 
a  house  which,  having  been  polluted  by  the  presence 
of  a  traitor,  became  an  unfit  habitation  for  a  man  of 
honour.29 

Charles  himself,  nevertheless,  seemed  to  have  it  much 
at  heart  to  reward  Bourbon's  services  in  a  signal  manner. 
But  as  he  insisted,  in  the  first  place,  on  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  emperor's  promise  of  giving  him  in  marriage 
his  sister  Eleanora,  queen-dowager  of  Portugal,  the 
honour  of  which  alliance  had  been  one  of  his  chief  in- 
ducements to  rebel  against  his  lawful  sovereign,  as 

Guic.,  lib.  xvi.  335. 


BOOK  iv.J  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH. 

Francis,  m  order  to  prevent  such  a  dangerous  union,  hud 
offered  before  he  left  Italy  to  marry  that  princess,  and 
as  Eleanora  herself  discovered  an  inclination  rather  to 
match  with  a  powerful  monarch  than  with  his  exiled 
subject,  all  these  interfering  circumstances  created  great 
embarrassment  to  Charles  and  left  him  hardly  any  hope 
of  extricating  himself  with  decency.  But  the  death  of 
Pescara,  who,  at  the  age  of  thirty-six,  left  behind  him 
the  reputation  of  being  one  of  the  greatest  generals  and 
ablest  politicians  of  that  century,  happened  opportunely 
at  this  juncture  for  his  relief.  By  that  event  the  com- 
mand of  the  army  in  Italy  became  vacant,  and  Charles, 
always  fertile  in  resources,  persuaded  Bourbon,  who  was 
in  no  condition  to  dispute  his  will,  to  accept  the  office 
of  general-in-chief  there,  together  with  a  grant  of  the 
duchy  of  Milan  forfeited  by  Sforza,  and  in  return  for 
these  to  relinquish  all  hopes  of  marrying  the  queen  of 
Portugal.30 

The  chief  obstacle  that  stood  in  the  way  of  Francis's 
liberty  was  the  emperor's  continuing  to  insist  so  per- 
emptorily on  the  restitution  of  Burgundy  as  a  prelimi- 
nary to  that  event.  Francis  often  declared  that  he 
would  never  consent  to  dismember  his  kingdom,  and 
that,  even  if  he  should  so  far  forget  the  duties  of  a 
monarch  as  to  come  to  such  a  resolution,  the  funda- 
mental laws  of  the  nation  would  prevent  its  taking 
effect.  On  his  part,  he  was  willing  to  make  an  absolute 
cession  to  the  emperor  of  all  his  pretensions  in  Italy 
and  the  Low  Countries ;  he  promised  to  restore  to 
Bourbon  all  his  lands  which  had  been  confiscated ;  he 
renewed  his  proposal  of  marrying  the  emperor's  sister, 
the  queen- do  wager  of  Portugal,  and  engaged  to  pay  a 
great  sum  by  way  of  ransom  for  his  own  person.  But 
all  mutual  esteem  and  confidence  between  the  two  rnon- 
archs  were  now  entirely  lost :  there  appeared  on  the  one 

30  Sandoval,  Hist,  i.  676. — CEuv.  de  Brant.,  iv.  249. 


636  REIGN  OF  THE  FBOOK  IT. 

hand  a  rapacious  ambition,  labouring  to  avail  itself  of 
every  favourable  circumstance ;  on  the  other,  suspicion 
and  resentment  standing  perpetually  on  their  guard ; 
so  that  the  prospect  of  bringing  their  negotiations  to 
an  issue  seemed  to  be  far  distant.  The  duchess  of 
Aleu^on,  the  French  king's  sister,  whom  Charles  per- 
mitted to  visit  her  brother  in  his  confinement,  employed 
all  her  address  in  order  to  procure  his  liberty  on  more 
reasonable  terms.  Henry  of  England  interposed  his 
good  offices  to  the  same  purpose,  but  both  with  so  little 
success  that  Francis,  in  despair,  took  suddenly  the  re- 
solution of  resigning  his  crown,  with  all  its  rights  and 
prerogatives,  to  his  son,  the  dauphin,  determining  rather 
to  end  his  days  in  prison  than  to  purchase  his  freedom 
by  concessions  unworthy  of  a  king.  The  deed  for  this 
purpose  he  signed  with  legal  formality  in  Madrid,  em- 
powering his  sister  to  carry  it  into  France,  that  it  might 
be  registered  in  all  the  parliaments  of  the  kingdom  ;  and 
at  the  same  time  intimating  his  intention  to  the  emperor, 
he  desired  him  to  name  the  place  of  his  confinement,  and 
to  assign  him  a  proper  number  of  attendants  during  the 
remainder  of  his  days.31 

This  resolution  of  the  French  king  had  great  effect : 
Charles  began  to  be  sensible  that  by  pushing  rigour  to 
excess  he  might  defeat  his  own  measures,  and,  instead 
of  the  vast  advantages  which  he  hoped  to  draw  from 
ransoming  a  powerful  monarch,  he  might  at  last  find 
in  his  hands  a  prince  without  dominions  or  revenues. 
About  the  same  time,  one  of  the  king  of  Navarre's 
domestics  happened,  by  an  extraordinary  exertion  of 
fidelity,  courage,  and  address,  to  procure  his  master  un 
opportunity  of  escaping  from  the  prison  in  which  he 
had  been  confined  ever  since  the  battle  of  Pavia.  This 
convinced  the  emperor  that  the  most  vigilant  attention 

"  This  paper  is  published  in  M&noires  histoiiques,  etc.,  par  M.  1'Abbd 
Raynal,  torn.  ii.  p.  151. 


BOOK  iv.]          EMPEEOB  OHAKLES  THE  FIFTH.  537 

of  his  officers  might  be  eluded  by  the  ingenuity  or  bold- 
ness of  Francis  or  his  attendants,  and  one  unlucky  hour 
might  deprive  him  of  all  the  advantages  which  he  had 
been  so  solicitous  to  obtain.  By  these  considerations  he 
was  induced  to  abate  somewhat  of  his  former  demands. 
On  the  other  hand,  Francis's  impatience  under  confine- 
ment daily  increased;  and,  having  received  certain 
intelligence  of  a  powerful  league  forming  against  his 
rival  in  Italy,  he  grew  more  compliant  with  regard  to 
his  concessions,  trusting  that  if  he  could  once  obtain  his 
liberty  he  would  soon  be  in  a  condition  to  resume  what- 
ever he  had  yielded. 

Such  being  the  views  and  sentiments  of  the  two 
monarchs,  the  treaty  which  procured  Francis  his  liberty 
was  signed  at  Madrid  on  the  14th  of  January,  1526. 
The  article  with  regard  to  Burgundy,  which  had 
hitherto  created  the  greatest  difficulty,  was  compro- 
mised, Francis  engaging  to  restore  that  duchy  with  all 
its  dependencies  in  full  sovereignty  to  the  emperor,  and 
Charles  consenting  that  this  restitution  should  not  be 
made  until  the  king  was  set  at  liberty.  In  order  to 
secure  the  performance  of  this  as  well  as  the  other 
conditions  in  the  treaty,  Francis  agreed  that  at  the 
same  instant  when  he  himself  should  be  released  he 
would  deliver  as  hostages  to  the  emperor  his  eldest 
son,  the  dauphin,  and  his  second  son,  the  duke  of 
Orleans,  or,  in  lieu  of  the  latter,  twelve  of  his  prin- 
cipal nobility,  to  be  named  by  Charles.  The  other 
articles  swelled  to  a  great  number,  and,  though  not  of 
such  importance,  were  extremely  rigorous.  Among 
these  the  most  remarkable  were,  that  Francis  should 
renounce  all  his  pretensions  in  Italy;  that  he  should 
disclaim  any  title  which  he  had  to  the  sovereignty  of 
Flanders  and  Artois;  that  within  six  weeks  after  his 
release  he  should  restore  to  Bourbon  and  his  adherents 
all  their  goods,  moveable  and  immoveable,  and  make 


538  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  iv. 

them  full  reparation  for  the  damages  which  they  had 
sustained  by  the  confiscation  of  them ;  that  he  should 
use  his  interest  with  Henry  d'Albret  to  relinquish  his 
pretensions  to  the  crown  of  Navarre,  and  should  not 
for  the  future  assist  him  in  any  attempt  to  recover  it ; 
that  there  should  be  established  between  the  emperor 
and  Francis  a  league  of  perpetual  friendship  and  con- 
federacy, with  a  promise  of  mutual  assistance  in  every 
case  of  necessity ;  that,  in  corroboration  of  this  union 
Francis  should  marry  the  emperor's  sister,  the  queen- 
dowager  of  Portugal;  that  Francis  should  cause  all 
the  articles  of  this  treaty  to  be  ratified  by  the  states 
and  registered  in  the  parliaments  of  his  kingdom ; 
that  upon  the  emperor's  receiving  this  ratification  the 
hostages  should  be  set  at  liberty,  but  in  their  place  the 
duke  of  Angouleme,  the  king's  third  son,  should  be 
delivered  to  Charles ;  that,  in  order  to  manifest  as  well 
as  to  strengthen  the  amity  between  the  two  monarchs, 
he  might  be  educated  at  the  imperial  court ;  and  that 
if  Francis  did  not,  within  the  time  limited,  fulfil  the 
stipulations  in  the  treaty,  he  should  promise,  upon  his 
honour  and  oath,  to  return  to  Spain,  and  to  surrender 
himself  again  a  prisoner  to  the  emperor.32 

By  this  treaty,  Charles  flattered  himself  that  he  had 
not  only  effectually  humbled  his  rival,  but  that  he  had 
taken  such  precautions  as  would  for  ever  prevent  his 
re-attaining  any  formidable  degree  of  power.  The 
opinion  which  the  wisest  politicians  formed  concern- 
ing it  was  very  different;  they  could  not  persuade 
themselves  that  Francis,  after  obtaining  his  liberty, 
would  execute  articles  against  which  he  had  struggled 
so  long,  and  to  which,  notwithstanding  all  that  he  felt 
during  a  long  and  rigorous  confinement,  he  had  con- 
sented with  the  utmost  reluctance.  Ambition  and 
resentment,  they  knew,  would  conspire  in  prompting 

3<i  Recueil  des  Trait.,  torn.  ii.  1 12. — Ulloa,  Vita  di  Carlo  V.,  p.  102,  etc. 


BOOK  iv.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIETH.  539 

him  to  violate  the  hard  conditions  to  which  he  had 
been  constrained  to  submit;  nor  would  arguments  and 
casuistry  be  wanting  to  represent  that  which  was  so 
manifestly  advantageous  to  be  necessary  and  just.  If 
one  part  of  Francis's  conduct  had  been  known  at  that 
time,  this  opinion  might  have  been  founded,  not  in 
conjecture,  but  in  certainty.  A  few  hours  before  he 
signed  the  treaty,  he  assembled  such  of  his  counsellors 
as  were  then  at  Madrid,  and,  having  exacted  from  them 
a  solemn  oath  of  secrecy,  he  made  a  long  enumeration 
in  their  presence  of  the  dishonourable  arts  as  well  as 
unprincely  rigour  which  the  emperor  had  employed  in 
order  to  ensnare  or  intimidate  him.  For  that  reason, 
he  took  a  formal  protest  in  the  hands  of  notaries  that 
his  consent  to  the  treaty  should  be  considered  as  an 
involuntary  deed  and  be  deemed  null  and  void.33  By 
this  disingenuous  artifice,  for  which  even  the  treatment 
that  he  had  met  with  was  no  apology,  Francis  endea- 
voured to  satisfy  his  honour  and  conscience  in  signing 
the  treaty,  and  to  provide  at  the  same  time  a  pretext  on 
which  to  break  it. 

Great,  meanwhile,  were  the  outward  demonstrations 
of  love  and  confidence  between  the  two  monarchs : 
they  appeared  often  together  in  public ;  they  fre- 
quently had  long  conferences  in  private ;  they  travelled 
in  the  same  litter,  and  joined  in  the  same  amusements. 
But,  amidst  these  signs  of  peace  and  friendship,  the 
emperor  still  harboured  suspicion  in  his  mind.  Though 
the  ceremonies  of  the  marriage  between  Francis  and 
the  queen  of  Portugal  were  performed  soon  after  the 
conclusion  of  the  treaty,  Charles  would  not  permit  him 
to  consummate  it  until  the  return  of  the  ratification 
from  France.  Even  then  Francis  was  not  allowed  to 
be  at  full  liberty ;  his  guards  were  still  continued ; 
though  caressed  as  a  brother-in-law,  he  was  still  watched 

33  Recueil  des  Trait.,  torn,  ii  p.  107. 


540  REIGN  OF  THE  TBOOK  iv. 

like  a  prisoner ;  and  it  was  obvious  to  attentive  observers 
that  an  union  in  the  very  beginning  of  which  there 
might  be  discerned  such  symptoms  of  jealousy  and 
distrust  could  not  be  cordial  or  of  long  continuance.34 

About  a  month  after  the  signing  of  the  treaty,  the 
regent's  ratification  of  it  was  brought  from  France ; 
and  that  wise  princess,  preferring  on  this  occasion  the 
public  good  to  domestic  affection,  informed  her  son 
that,  instead  of  the  twelve  noblemen  named  in  the 
treaty,  she  had  sent  the  duke  of  Orleans  along  with 
his  brother  the  dauphin  to  the  frontier,  as  the  kingdom 
could  suffer  nothing  by  the  absence  of  a  child,  but 
must  be  left  almost  incapable  of  defence  if  deprived 
of  its  ablest  statesmen  and  most  experienced  generals, 
whom  Charles  had  artfully  included  in  his  nomination. 
At  last  Francis  took  leave  of  the  emperor,  whose  sus- 
picion of  the  king's  sincerity  increasing  as  the  time  of 
putting  it  to  the  proof  approached,  he  endeavoured  to 
bind  him  still  faster  by  exacting  new  promises,  which, 
after  those  he  had  already  made,  the  French  monarch 
was  not  slow  to  grant.  He  set  out  from  Madrid,  a 
place  which  the  remembrance  of  many  afflicting  cir- 
cumstances rendered  peculiarly  odious  to  him,  with 
the  joy  natural  on  such  an  occasion,  and  began  the 
long-wished-for  journey  towards  his  own  dominions. 
He  was  escorted  by  a  body  of  horse  under  the  com- 
mand of  Alarcon,  who,  as  the  king  drew  near  the 
frontiers  of  France,  guarded  him  with  more  scrupulous 
exactness  than  ever.  When  he  arrived  at  the  river 
Andaye,  which  separates  the  two  kingdoms,  Lautrec 
appeared  on  the  opposite  bank  with  a  guard  of  horse 
equal  in  number  to  Alarcon's.  An  empty  bark  was 
moored  in  the  middle  of  the  stream ;  the  attendants 
drew  up  in  order  on  the  opposite  banks ;  at  the  same 

M  Guic.,  lib.  xvi.  353. 


BOOK  rv.]          EMPEEOR  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  541 

instant,  Lannoy,  with  eight  gentlemen,  put  off  from 
the  Spanish,  and  Lautrec  with  the  same  number  from 
the  French  side  of  the  river ;  the  former  had  the  king 
in  his  boat,  the  latter  the  dauphin  and  duke  of  Orleans ; 
they  met  in  the  empty  vessel ;  the  exchange  was  made 
in  a  moment ;  Francis,  after  a  short  embrace  of  his 
children,  leaped  into  Lautrec's  boat,  and  reached  the 
French  shore.  He  mounted  at  that  instant  a  Turkish 
horse,  waved  his  hand  over  his  head,  and,  with  a  joyful 
voice  crying  aloud  several  times,  "I  am  yet  a  king!" 
galloped  full  speed  to  St.  John  de  Luz,  and  from  thence 
to  Bayonne.  This  event,  no  less  impatiently  desired 
by  the  French  nation  than  by  their  monarch,  happened 
on  the  18th  of  March,  a  year  and  twenty-two  days  after 
the  fatal  battle  of  Pavia.35 

Soon  after  the  emperor  had  taken  leave  of  Francis 
and  permitted  him  to  begin  his  journey  towards  his 
own  dominions,  he  set  out  for  Seville,  in  order  to 
solemnize  his  marriage  with  Isabella,  the  daughter  of 
Emanuel,  the  late  king  of  Portugal,  and  the  sister  of 
John  III.,  who  had  succeeded  him  in  the  throne  of 
that  kingdom.  Isabella  was  a  princess  of  uncommon 
beauty  and  accomplishments ;  and  as  the  cortes,  both 
in  Castile  and  Aragon,  had  warmly  solicited  their 
sovereign  to  marry,  the  choice  of  a  wife  so  nearly  allied 
to  the  royal  blood  of  both  kingdoms  was  extremely 
acceptable  to  his  subjects.  The  Portuguese,  fond  of 
this  new  connection  with  the  first  monarch  in  Christen- 
dom, granted  him  an  extraordinary  dowry  with  Isabella, 
amounting  to  nine  hundred  thousand  crowns,  a  sum 
which,  from  the  situation  of  his  affairs  at  that  juncture, 
was  of  no  small  consequence  to  the  emperor.  The 
marriage  was  celebrated  with  that  splendour  and  gaiety 
which  became  a  great  and  youthful  prince,  Charles 

**  Sandoval,  Hist,  i.  735. — Giiic.,  lib.  xvi.  355. 


542  REIGN    OP    THE  [BOOK  iv. 

lived  witn  Isabella  in  perfect  harmony,  and  treated  her 
on  all  occasions  with  much  distinction  and  regard.36 

During  these  transactions,  Charles  could  hardly  give 
any  attention  to  the  affairs  of  Germany,  though  it  was 
torn  in  pieces  by  commotions  which  threatened  the 
most  dangerous  consequences.  By  the  feudal  institu- 
tions, which  still  subsisted  almost  unimpaired  in  the 
empire,  the  property  of  lands  was  vested  in  the  princes 
and  free  barons.  Their  vassals  held  of  them  by  the 
strictest  and  most  limited  tenures ;  while  the  great  body 
of  the  people  was  kept  in  a  state  but  little  removed 
from  absolute  servitude.  In  some  places  of  Germany, 
people  of  the  lowest  class  were  so  entirely  in  the  power 
of  their  masters  as  to  be  subject  to  personal  and  domestic 
slavery,  the  most  rigorous  form  of  that  wretched  state. 
In  other  provinces,  particularly  in  Bohemia  and  Lusatia, 
the  peasants  were  bound  to  remain  on  the  lands  to  which 
they  belonged,  and,  making  part  of  the  estate,  were 
transferred,  like  any  other  property,  from  one  hand 
to  another.  Even  in  Suabia  and  the  countries  on  the 
banks  of  the  Ehine,  where  their  condition  was  most 
tolerable,  the  peasants  not  only  paid  the  full  rent  of 
their  farms  to  the  landlord,  but,  if  they  chose  either  to 
change  the  place  of  their  abode,  or  to  follow  a  new 
profession,  before  they  could  accomplish  what  they 
desired  they  were  obliged  to  purchase  this  privilege  at 
a  certain  price.  Besides  this,  all  grants  of  lands  to 
peasants  expired  at  their  death,  without  descending  to 
their  posterity.  Upon  that  event  the  landlord  had  a 
right  to  the  best  of  their  cattle,  as  well  as  of  their 
hirniture  ;  and  their  heirs,  in  order  to  obtain  a  renewal 
of  the  grant,  were  obliged  to  pay  large  sums  by  way 
of  fine.  These  exactions,  though  grievous,  were  borne 
with  patience,  because  they  were  customary  and  ancient ; 

36  Ulloa,  Vita  di  Carlo  V.,  p.  106.  565. — Spalatinus,  ap.  SVruv.,  Corp. 
—  -Belcaxius,  Com.  Rer.  Gallic,  p.  Hist.  Germ.,  ii  1081. 


HOOK  iv.]  EMPEROK  CHARLES  THE    FIFTH.  643 

but  when  the  progress  of  elegance  and  luxury,  as  well 
as  the  changes  introduced  into  the  art  of  war,  came 
to  increase  the  expense  of  government,  and  made  it 
necessary  for  princes  to  levy  occasional  or  stated  taxes 
on  their  subjects,  such  impositions,  being  new,  appeared 
intolerable;  and  in  Germany  these  duties,  being  laid 
chiefly  upon  beer,  wine,  and  other  necessaries  of  life, 
affected  the  common  people  in  the  most  sensible  manner. 
The  addition  of  such  a  load  to  their  former  burdens 
drove  them  to  despair.  It  was  to  the  valour  inspired 
by  resentment  against  impositions  of  this  kind  that 
the  Swiss  owed  the  acquisition  of  their  liberty  in  the 
fourteenth  century.  The  same  cause  had  excited  the 
peasants  in  several  other  provinces  of  Germany  to  rebel 
against  their  superiors  towards  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
and  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  centuries ;  and,  though 
these  insurrections  were  not  attended  with  like  success, 
they  could  not,  however,  be  quelled  without  much 
difficulty  and  bloodshed.37 

By  these  checks  the  spirit  of  the  peasants  was  over- 
awed rather  than  subdued ;  and,  their  grievances  multi- 
plying continually,  they  ran  to  arms,  in  the  year  1526, 
with  the  most  frantic  rage.  Their  first  appearance  was 
near  Ulm,  in  Suabia.  The  peasants  in  the  adjacent 
country  flocked  to  their  standard  with  the  ardour  and 
impatience  natural  to  men  who,  having  groaned  long 
under  oppression,  beheld  at  last  some  prospect  of  deli- 
verance; and  the  contagion,  spreading  from  province 
to  province,  reached  almost  every  part  of  Germany. 
Wherever  they  came,  they  plundered  the  monasteries, 
wasted  the  lands  of  their  superiors,  razed  their  castles, 
and  massacred  without  mercy  all  persons  of  noble  birth 
who  were  so  unhappy  as  to  fall  into  their  hands.39 
Having  intimidated  their  oppressors,  as  they  imagined, 

37  Seckend.,  lib.  ii.  pp.  2,  6.  cano,  ap*  Freher.  Script.  Rer.  Germ., 

K  Petr.  Crinitus  de  Bello  Ruflti-      Argent,  1717,  vol.  iii.  p.  243. 


EEIGN    OP    THE  [BOOB.  iv. 

by  the  violence  of  these  proceedings,  they  began  to 
consider  what  would  be  the  most  proper  and  effectual 
method  of  securing  themselves  for  the  future  from  their 
tyrannical  exactions.  With  this  view,  they  drew  up  and 
published  a  memorial  containing  all  their  demands,  and 
declared  that,  while  arms  were  in  their  hands,  they 
would  either  persuade  or  oblige  the  nobles  to  give  them 
full  satisfaction  with  regard  to  these.  The  chief  articles 
were,  that  they  might  have  liberty  to  choose  their  own 
pastors ;  that  they  might  be  freed  from  the  payment 
of  all  tithes  except  those  of  corn ;  that  they  might 
no  longer  be  considered  as  the  slaves  or  bondmen 
of  their  superiors ;  that  the  liberty  of  hunting  and 
fishing  might  be  common ;  that  the  great  forests  might 
not  be  regarded  as  private  property,  but  be  open  for 
the  use  of  all ;  that  they  might  be  delivered  from  the 
unusual  burden  of  taxes  under  which  they  laboured; 
that  the  administration  of  justice  might  be  rendered 
less  rigorous  and  more  impartial;  that  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  nobles  upon  meadows  and  commons  might 
be  restrained.39 

Many  of  these  demands  were  extremely  reasonable, 
and,  being  urged  by  such  formidable  numbers,  should 
have  met  with  some  redress.  But  those  unwieldy 
bodies,  assci^led  in  different  places,  had  neither  union, 
nor  conduct,  nor  vigour.  Being  led  by  persons  of 
the  lowest  rank,  without  skill  in  war  or  knowledge 
of  what  was  necessary  for  accomplishing  their  designs, 
all  their  exploits  were  distinguished  only  by  a  brutal 
and  unmeaning  fury.  To  oppose  this,  the  princes  and 
nobles  of  Suabia  and  the  Lower  Ehine  raised  such  of 
their  vassals  as  still  continued  faithful,  and,  attacking 
some  of  the  mutineers  with  open  force  and  others  by 
surprise,  cut  to  pieces  or  dispersed  all  who  infested 
those  provinces  j  so  that  the  peasants,  after  ruining  the 

M  Slei<L;  Hist.,  p.  90. 


BOOK  iv.]          EMPEROK  CHABLES   THE  FIFTH.  545 

open  country,  and  losing  upwards  of  twenty  thousand 
of  their  associates  in  the  field,  were  obliged  to  return 
to  their  habitations  with  less  hope  than  ever  of  relief 
from  their  grievances.40 

These  commotions  happened  at  first  in  provinces 
of  Germany  where  Luther's  opinions  had  made  little 
progress,  and,  being  excited  wholly  by  political  causes, 
had  no  connection  with  the  disputed  points  in  religion. 
But  the  frenzy,  reaching  at  last  those  countries  in  which 
the  Keformation  was  established,  derived  new  strength 
from  circumstances  peculiar  to  them,  and  rose  to  a 
still  greater  pitch  of  extravagance.  The  Reforma- 
tion, wherever  it  was  received,  increased  that  bold  and 
innovating  spirit  to  which  it  owed  its  birth.  Men 
who  had  the  courage  to  overturn  a  system  supported 
by  every  thing  which  can  command  respect  or  rever- 
ence were  not  to  be  overawed  by  any  authority,  how 
great  or  venerable  soever.  After  having  been  accus- 
tomed to  consider  themselves  as  judges  of  the  most 
important  doctrines  in  religion,  to  examine  these  freely, 
and  to  reject  without  scruple  what  appeared  to  them 
erroneous,  it  was  natural  for  them  to  turn  the  same 
daring  and  inquisitive  eye  towards  government,  and  to 
think  of  rectifying  whatever  disorders  or  imperfec- 
tions were  discovered  there.  As  religious  abuses  had 
been  reformed  in  several  places  without  the  permis- 
sion of  the  magistrate,  it  was  an  easy  transition  to 
attempt  the  redress  of  political  grievances  in  the  same 
manner. 

No  sooner,  then,  did  the  spirit  of  revolt  break  out 
in  Thuringia,  a  province  subject  to  the  elector  of 
Saxony,  the  inhabitants  of  which  were  mostly  converts 
to  Lutheranism,  than  it  assumed  a  new  and  more 
dangerous  form.  Thomas  Muncer,  one  of  Luther's 

40  Seckend.,  lib.  ii  p.  10. — Petr.  multu  in  Germania,  ap.  Scard 
Gnodtilms  de  Rusticanorum  Tu-  Script,  vol.  ii  p.  131,  etc. 

VOL.    I.  N  H 


546  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  IV. 

disciples,  having  established  himself  in  that  country, 
had  acquired  a  wonderful  ascendant,  over  the  minds  of 
the  people.  He  propagated  among  them  the  wildest 
and  most  enthusiastic  notions,  but  such  as  tended 
manifestly  to  inspire  them  with  boldness,  and  lead 
them  to  sedition.  "  Luther,"  he  told  them,  "  had  done 
more  hurt  than  service  to  religion.  He  had,  indeed, 
rescued  the  Church  from  the  yoke  of  popery,  but  his 
doctrines  encouraged,  and  his  life  set  an  example  of 
the  utmost  licentiousness  of  manners.  In  order  to 
avoid  vice,"  says  he,  "  men  must  practise  perpetual 
mortification.  They  must  put  on  a  grave  countenance, 
speak  little,  wear  a  plain  garb,  and  be  serious  in  their 
whole  deportment.  Such  as  prepare  their  hearts  in 
this  manner  may  expect  that  the  Supreme  Being  will 
direct  all  their  steps,  and  by  some  visible  sign  discover 
his  will  to  them ;  if  that  illumination  be  at  any  time 
withheld,  we  may  expostulate  with  the  Almighty, 
who  deals  with  us  so  harshly,  and  remind  him  of  his 
promises.  This  expostulation  and  anger  will  be  highly 
acceptable  to  God,  and  will  at  last  prevail  on  him  to 
guide  us  with  the  same  unerring  hand  which  conducted 
the  patriarchs  of  old.  Let  us  beware,  however,  of 
offending  him  by  our  arrogance ;  but,  as  all  men  are 
equal  in  his  eye,  let  them  return  to  that  condition  of 
equality  in  which  he  formed  them,  and,  having  all 
things  in  common,  let  them  live  together  like  brethren, 
without  any  marks  of  subordination  or  pre-eminence."  41 
Extravagant  as  these  tenets  were,  they  flattered  so 
many  passions  in  the  human  heart  as  to  make  a  deep 
impression.  To  aim  at  nothing  more  than  abridging 
the  power  of  the  nobility  was  now  considered  as  a 
trifling  and  partial  reformation,  not  worth  the  con- 
tending for ;.  it  was  proposed  to  level  every  distinction 

41  Seckend.,  lib.  ii.  p.  13..—  Sleid.,  Hist,  p.  83. 


iv.  j          EMPEEOE  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  547 

among  mankind,  and,  by  abolishing  property,  to  reduce 
them  to  their  natural  state  of  equality,  in  which  all 
should  receive  their  subsistence  from  one  common  stock, 
Muucer  assured  them  that  the  design  was  approved 
of  by  Heaven,  and  that  the  Almighty  had  in  a  dream 
ascertained  him  of  its  success.  The  peasants  set  about 
the  execution  of  it,  not  only  with  the  rage  which 
animated  those  of  their  order  in  other  parts  of  Germany, 
but  with  the  ardour  which  enthusiasm  inspires.  They 
deposed  the  magistrates  in  all  the  cities  of  which 
they  were  masters ;  seized  the  lands  of  the  nobles,  and 
obliged  such  of  them  as  they  got  into  their  hands  to 
put  on  the  dress  commonly  worn  by  peasants,  and, 
instead  of  their  former  titles,  to  be  satisfied  with  the 
appellation  given  to  people  in  the  lowest  class  of  life. 
Great  numbers  engaged  in  this  wild  undertaking ;  but 
Muucer,  their  leader  and  their  prophet,  was  destitute 
of  the  abilities  necessary  for  conducting  it.  He  had 
all  the  extravagance,  but  not  the  courage,  which  enthu- 
siasts usually  possess.  It  was  with  difficulty  he  could 
be  persuaded  to  take  the  field ;  and,  though  he  soon  drew 
together  eight  thousand  men,  he  suffered  himself  to  be 
surrounded  by  a  body  of  cavalry  under  the  command 
of  the  elector  of  Saxony,  the  landgrave  of  Hesse,  and 
the  duke  of  Brunswick.  These  princes,  unwilling  to 
shed  the  blood  of  their  deluded  subjects,  sent  a  young 
nobleman  to  their  camp,  with  the  offer  of  a  general 
pardon  if  they  would  immediately  lay  down  their  arms 
and  deliver  up  the  authors  of  the  sedition.  Muncer, 
alarmed  at  this,  began  to  harangue  his  followers  with 
his  usual  vehemence,  exhorting  them  not  to  trust  these 
deceitful  promises  of  their  oppressors,  nor  to  desert  the 
cause  of  God  and  of  Christian  liberty. 

But,  the  sense  of  present  danger  making  a  deeper 
impression  on  the  peasants  than  his  eloquence,  confusion 
and  terror  were  visible  on  every  face,  when  a  rainbow, 

N  N  2 


548  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  rv. 

which  was  the  emblem  that  the  mutineers  had  painted 
on  their  colours,  happening  to  appear  in  the  clouds, 
Muncer,  with  admirable  presence  of  mind,  laid  hold  of 
that  incident,  and,  suddenly  raising  his  eyes  and  hands 
towards  heaven,  "  Behold,"  cries  he,  with  an  elevated 
voice,  "  the  sign  which  God  has  given.  There  is  the 
pledge  of  your  safety,  and  a  token  that  the  wicked  shall 
be  destroyed."  The  fanatical  multitude  set  up  instantly 
a  great  shout,  as  if  victory  had  been  certain,  and,  passing 
in  a  moment  from  one  extreme  to  another,  massacred 
the  unfortunate  nobleman  who  had  come  with  the  offer 
of  pardon,  and  demanded  to  be  led  towards  the  enemy. 
The  princes,  enraged  at  this  shocking  violation  of  the 
laws  of  war,  advanced  with  no  less  impetuosity,  and 
began  the  attack.  But  the  behaviour  of  the  peasants  in 
the  combat  was  not  such  as  might  have  been  expected 
either  from  their  ferocity  or  confidence  of  success ;  an 
undisciplined  rabble  was  no  equal  match  for  well-trained 
troops ;  above  five  thousand  were  slain  in  the  field, 
almost  without  making  resistance :  the  rest  fled,  and 
among  the  foremost  Muncer  their  general.  He  was 
taken  next  day,  and,  being  condemned  to  such  punish- 
ments as  his  crimes  had  deserved,  he  suffered  them  with 
a  poor  and  dastardly  spirit.  His  death  put  an  end  to  the 
insurrections  of  the  peasants,  which  had  filled  Germany 
with  such  terror;42  but  the  enthusiastic  notions  which 
he  had  scattered  were  not  extirpated,  and  produced, 
not  long  after,  effects  more  memorable,  as  well  as  more 
extravagant. 

During  these  commotions,  Luther  acted  with  exem- 
plary prudence  and  moderation ;  like  a  common  parent, 
solicitous  about  the  welfare  of  both  parties,  without 
sparing  the  faults  or  errors  of  either.  On  the  one  hand, 
he  addressed  a  monitory  discourse  to  the  nobles,  exhort- 

42  Sleid.,  Hist,  p.  84. — Seckend.,  lib.  ii  p.  12. — Gnodalius,  Tumult. 
Rwtican.,  155. 


BOOK  IT.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  549 

ing  them  to  treat  their  dependants  with  greater  humanity 
and  indulgence.  On  the  other,  he  severely  censured 
the  seditious  spirit  of  the  peasants,  advising  them  not  to 
murmur  at  hardships  inseparable  from  their  condition, 
nor  to  seek  for  redress  by  any  but  legal  means.43 

Luther's  famous  marriage  with  Catherine  k  Boria,  a 
nun  of  a  noble  family,  who,  having  thrown  off  the  veil, 
had  fled  from  the  cloister,  happened  this  year,  and  was 
far  from  meeting  with  the  same  approbation.  Even  his 
most  devoted  followers  thought  this  step  indecent  at  a 
time  when  his  country  was  involved  in  so  many  calami- 
ties ;  while  his  enemies  never  mentioned  it  with  any 
softer  appellation  than  that  of  incestuous  or  profane. 
Luther  himself  was  sensible  of  the  impression  which  it 
had  made  to  his  disadvantage  ;  but,  being  satisfied  with 
his  own  conduct,  he  bore  the  censure  of  his  friends 
and  the  reproaches  of  his  adversaries  with  his  usual 
fortitude.44 

This  year  the  Eeformation  lost  its  first  protector, 
Frederic,  elector  of  Saxony  ;  but  the  blow  was  the  less 
sensibly  felt  as  he  was  succeeded  by  his  brother  John,  a 
more  avowed  and  zealous,  though  less  able,  patron  of 
Luther  and  his  doctrines. 

Another  event  happened  about  the  same  time,  which, 
as  it  occasioned  a  considerable  change  in  the  state  of 
Germany,  must  be  traced  back  to  its  source.  While 
the  frenzy  of  the  crusades  possessed  all  Europe  during 
the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  several  orders  of 
religious  knighthood  were  founded  in  defence  of  the 
Christian  faith  against  heathens  and  infidels.  Among 
these,  the  Teutonic  order  in  Germany  was  one  of  the 
most  illustrious,  the  knights  of  which  distinguished 
themselves  greatly  in  all  the  enterprises  carried  on  in 
the  Holy  Land.  Being  driven  at  last  from  their  settle- 


,  Hist,  p.  87.  «*  Seckend.,  lib.  ii  p.  16. 


550  BEIGN  OP  THE  [BOOK  iv. 

ments  in  the  East,  they  were  obliged  to  return  to  their 
native  country.  Their  zeal  and  valour  were  too  im- 
petuous to  remain  long  inactive ;  they  invaded,  on  very 
slight  pretences,  the  provinces  of  Prussia,  the  inhabit- 
ants of  which  were  still  idolaters,  and,  having  completed 
the  conquest  of  it  about  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  held  it  many  years  as  a  fief  depending  on  the 
crown  of  Poland.  Fierce  contests  arose,  during  this 
period,  between  the  grand  masters  of  the  order  and  the 
kings  of  Poland,  the  former  struggling  for  independence, 
while  the  latter  asserted  their  right  of  sovereignty  with 
great  firmness.  Albert,  a  prince  of  the  house  of  Brand- 
enburg, who  was  elected  grand  master  in  the  year  1511, 
engaging  keenly  in  this  quarrel,  maintained  a  long  war 
with  Sigismund,  king  of  Poland;  but,  having  become 
an  early  convert  to  Luther's  doctrines,  this  gradually 
lessened  his  zeal  for  the  interests  of  his  fraternity,  so 
that  he  took  the  opportunity  of  the  confusions  in  the 
empire,  and  the  absence  of  the  emperor,  to  conclude 
a  treaty  with  Sigismund,  greatly  to  his  own  private 
emolument.  By  it,  that  part  of  Prussia  which  belonged 
to  the  Teutonic  order  was  erected  into  a  secular  and 
hereditary  duchy,  and  the  investiture  of  it  granted  to 
Albert,  who,  in  return,  bound  himself  to  do  homage  for 
it  to  the  kings  of  Poland  as  their  vassal.  Immediately 
after  this  he  made  public  profession  of  the  reformed 
religion  and  married  a  princess  of  Denmark.  The  Teu- 
tonic knights  exclaimed  so  loudly  against  the  treachery 
of  their  grand  master  that  he  was  put  under  the  ban  of 
the  empire  ;  but  he  still  kept  possession  of  the  province 
which  he  had  usurped,  and  transmitted  it  to  his  pos- 
terity. In  process  of  time  this  rich  inheritance  fell  to 
the  electoral  branch  of  the  family,  all  dependence  on  the 
crown  of  Poland  was  shaken  off,  and  the  margraves  of 
Brandenburg,  having  assumed  the  title  of  kings  of 
Prussia,  have  not  only  risen  to  an  equality  with  the  first 


BOOK  iv.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  551 

princes  in  Germany,  but  take  their  rank  among  the  great 
monarchs  of  Europe.45 

Upon  the  return  of  the  French  king  to  his  dominions, 
the  eyes  of  all  the  powers  in  Europe  were  fixed  upon 
him,  that  by  observing  his  first  motions  they  might 
form  a  judgment  concerning  his  subsequent  conduct. 
They  were  not  held  long  in  suspense.  Francis,  as  soon 
as  he  arrived  at  Bayonne,  wrote  to  the  king  of  England, 
thanking  him  for  the  zeal  and  affection  wherewith  he 
had  interposed  in  his  favour,  to  which  he  acknowledged 
that  he  owed  the  recovery  of  his  liberty.  Next  day  the 
emperor's  ambassadors  demanded  audience,  and,  in  their 
master's  name,  required  him  to  issue  such  orders  as  were 
necessary  for  carrying  the  treaty  of  Madrid  into  imme- 
diate and  full  execution.  He  coldly  answered  that, 
though  for  his  own  part  he  determined  religiously  to 
perform  all  that  he  had  promised,  the  treaty  contained 
so  many  articles  relative  not  to  himself  alone,  but  affect- 
ing the  interests  of  the  French  monarchy,  that  he  could 
not  take  any  farther  step  without  consulting  the  states 
of  his  kingdom,  and  that  some  time  would  be  necessary 
in  order  to  reconcile  their  minds  to  the  hard  conditions 
which  he  had  consented  to  ratify.46  This  reply  was  con- 
sidered as  no  obscure  discovery  of  his  being  resolved  to 
elude  the  treaty ;  and  the  compliment  paid  to  Henry 
appeared  a  very  proper  step  towards  securing  the  assist- 
ance of  that  monarch  in  the  war  with  the  emperor,  to 
which  such  a  resolution  would  certainly  give  rise.  These 
circumstances,  added  to  the  explicit  declarations  which 
Francis  made  in  secret  to  the  ambassadors  from  several 
of  the  Italian  powers,  fully  satisfied  them  that  their 
conjectures  with  regard  to  his  conduct  had  been  just, 
and  that,  instead  of  intending  to  execute  an  unreason- 
able treaty,  he  was  eager  to  seize  the  first  opportunity 

43  Sleid.,  Hist.,  p.   98. — Pfeffel,      lique,  p.  605,  etc. 
Abre"gd  de  1'Histoire  du  Droit  pub-          4 '  Mdm.  d<j  Bella y,  p.  97. 


552  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  rv. 

of  revenging  those  injuries  which  had  compelled  him 
to  feign  an  approbation  of  it.  Even  the  doubts  and 
fears  and  scruples  which  used,  on  other  occasions,  to 
hold  Clement  in  a  state  of  uncertainty,  were  dissipated 
by  Francis's  seeming  impatience  to  break  through  all  his 
engagements  with  the  emperor.  The  situation,  indeed, 
of  affairs  in  Italy  at  that  time  did  not  allow  the  pope  to 
hesitate  long.  Sforza  was  still  besieged  by  the  imperial- 
ists in  the  castle  of  Milan.  That  feeble  prince,  deprived 
now  of  Morone's  advice,  and  unprovided  with  everything 
necessary  for  defence,  found  means  to  inform  Clement 
and  the  Venetians  that  he  must  soon  surrender  if  they 
did  not  come  to  his  relief.  The  imperial  troops,  as  they 
had  received  no  pay  since  the  battle  of  Pavia,  lived  at 
discretion  in  the  Milanese,  levying  such  exorbitant  con- 
tributions in  that  duchy  as  amounted,  if  we  may  rely 
on  Guicciardini's  calculation,  to  no  less  a  sum  than  five 
thousand  ducats  a  day ; 47  nor  was  it  to  be  doubted  but 
that  the  soldiers,  as  soon  as  the  castle  should  submit, 
would  choose  to  leave  a  ruined  country,  which  hardly 
afforded  them  subsistence,  that  they  might  take  pos- 
session of  more  comfortable  quarters  in  the  fertile  and 
untouched  territories  of  the  pope  and  Venetians.  The 
assistance  of  the  French  king  was  the  only  thing  which 
could  either  save  Sforza  or  enable  them  to  protect  their 
own  dominions  from  the  insults  of  the  imperial  troops. 

For  these  reasons,  the  pope,  the  Venetians,  and  duke 
of  Milan  were  equally  impatient  to  come  to  an  agree- 
ment with  Francis,  who,  on  his  part,  was  no  less  de- 
sirous of  acquiring  such  a  considerable  accession  both 
of  strength  and  reputation  as  such  a  confederacy  would 
bring  along  with  it.  The  chief  objects  of  this  alliance, 
which  was  concluded  at  Cognac  on  the  22nd  of  May, 
though  kept  secret  for  some  time,  were  to  oblige  the 
emperor  to  set  at  liberty  the  French  king's  sons  upon 

47  Guic.,  lib.  xvii.  360. 


BOOK  iv.  1  EMPEROR,  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  553 

payment  of  a  reasonable  ransom,  and  to  re-establish 
Sforza  in  the  quiet  possession  of  the  Milanese.  If 
Charles  should  refuse  either  of  these,  the  contracting 
parties  bound  themselves  to  bring  into  the  field  an  army 
of  thirty-five  thousand  men,  with  which,  after  driving 
the  Spaniards  out  of  the  Milanese,  they  would  attack 
the  kingdom  of  Naples.  The  king  of  England  was 
declared  protector  of  this  league,  which  they  dignified 
with  the  name  of  holy,  because  the  pope  was  at  the  head 
of  it ;  and,  in  order  to  allure  Henry  more  effectually,  a 
principality  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  of  thirty  thousand 
ducats'  yearly  revenue,  was  to  be  settled  on  him,  and 
lands  to  the  value  of  ten  thousand  ducats  on  Wolsey,  his 
favourite.48 

No  sooner  was  this  league  concluded  than  Clement, 
by  the  plenitude  of  his  papal  power,  absolved  Francis 
from  the  oath  which  he  had  taken  to  observe  the  treaty 
of  Madrid.49  This  right,  how  pernicious  soever  in  its 
effects,  and  destructive  of  that  integrity  which  is  the 
basis  of  all  transactions  among  men,  was  the  natural 
consequence  of  the  powers  which  the  popes  arrogated 
as  the  infallible  vicegerents  of  Christ  upon  earth.  But 
as,  in  virtue  of  this  pretended  prerogative,  they  had 
often  dispensed  with  obligations  which  were  held  sacred, 
the  interest  of  some  men,  and  the  credulity  of  others, 
led  them  to  imagine  that  the  decisions  of  a  sovereign 
pontiff  authorised  or  justified  actions  which  would  other- 
wise have  been  criminal  and  impious. 

The  discovery  of  Francis's  intention  to  elude  the 
treaty  of  Madrid  filled  the  emperor  with  a  variety  of 
disquieting  thoughts.  He  had  treated  an  unfortunate 
prince  in  the  most  ungenerous  manner;  he  had  dis- 
played an  insatiable  ambition  in  all  his  negotiations  with 

48  P.  Heuter.,  Rer.  Austr.,  lib.  ix.  4g  Goldast,    Polit.    Imperial,  ]x 

c.  3,  p.  217. — Recueil  des  Trait.,      1002. — Pallav.,  Hist,  p.  70. 
ii.  124. 


554  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  TV. 

his  prisoner ;  lie  knew  what  censures  the  former  had 
drawn  upon  him,  and  what  apprehensions  the  latter  had 
excited  in  every  court  of  Europe  ;  nor  had  he  reaped 
from  the  measures  which  he  pursued  any  of  those  advan- 
tages which  politicians  are  apt  to  consider  as  an  excuse 
for  the  most  criminal  conduct  and  a  compensation  for 
the  severest  reproaches.  Francis  was  now  out  of  his 
hands,  and  not  one  of  all  the  mighty  consequences  which 
he  had  expected  from  the  treaty  that  set  him  at  liberty 
was  likely  to  take  place.  His  rashness  in  relying  so  far 
on  his  own  judgment  as  to  trust  to  the  sincerity  of  the 
French  king,  in  opposition  to  the  sentiments  of  his  wisest 
ministers,  was  now  apparent;  and  he  easily  conjectured 
that  the  same  confederacy  the  dread  of  which  had  in- 
duced him  to  set  Francis  at  liberty  would  now  be  formed 
against  him,  with  that  gallant  and  incensed  monarch  at 
its  head.  Self-condemnation  and  shame  on  account  of 
what  was  past,  with  anxious  apprehensions  concerning 
what  might  happen,  were  the  necessary  result  of  these 
reflections  on  his  own  conduct  and  situation.  Charles, 
however,  was  naturally  firm  and  inflexible  in  all  his 
measures.  To  have  receded  suddenly  from  any  article 
in  the  treaty  of  Madrid  would  have  been  a  plain  con- 
fession of  imprudence  and  a  palpable  symptom  of  fear : 
he  determined,  therefore,  that  it  was  most  suitable  to  his 
dignity  to  insist,  whatever  might  be  the  consequences, 
on  the  strict  execution  of  the  treaty,  and  particularly 
not  to  accept  of  anything  which  might  be  offered  as  an 
equivalent  for  the  restitution  of  Burgundy.50 

In  consequence  of  this  resolution,  he  appointed  Lannoy 
and  Alarcon  to  repair,  as  his  ambassadors,  to  the  court 
of  France,  and  formally  to  summon  the  king  either  to 
execute  the  treaty  with  the  sincerity  that  became  him, 
or  to  return,  according  to  his  oath,  a  prisoner  to  Madrid. 
Instead  of  giving  them  an  immediate  answer,  Francis 

50  Guic.,  lib.  xvii.  366. 


BOOK  iv.]  EVV'EROR  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  555 

admitted  the  deputies  of  the  states  of  Burgundy  to  an 
audience  in  their  presence.  They  humbly  represented 
to  him  that  he  had  exceeded  the  powers  vested  in  a  king 
of  France  when  he  consented  to  alienate  their  country 
from  the  crown,  the  domains  of  which  he  was  bound  by 
his  coronation  oath  to  preserve  entire  and  unimpaired. 
Francis,  in  return,  thanked  them  for  their  attachment 
to  his  crown,  and  entreated  them,  though  very  faintly, 
to  remember  the  obligations  which  he  lay  under  to  fulfil 
his  engagements  with  the  emperor.  The  deputies,  as- 
suming a  higher  tone,  declared  that  they  would  not  obey 
commands  which  they  considered  as  illegal ;  and  if  he 
should  abandon  them  to  the  enemies  of  France  they  had 
resolved  to  defend  themselves  to  the  best  of  their  power, 
with  a  firm  purpose  rather  to  perish  than  submit  to  a 
foreign  dominion.  Upon  which  Francis,  turning  towards 
the  imperial  ambassadors,  represented  to  them  the  im- 
possibility of  performing  what  he  had  undertaken,  and 
offered,  in  lieu  of  Burgundy,  to  pay  the  emperor  two 
millions  of  crowns.  The  viceroy  and  Alarcon,  who 
easily  perceived  that  the  scene  to  which  they  had  been 
witnesses  was  concerted  between  the  king  and  his  sub- 
jects in  order  to  impose  upon  them,  signified  to  him 
their  master's  fixed  resolution  not  to  depart  in  the 
smallest  point  from  the  terms  of  the  treaty,  and  with- 
drew.51 Before  they  left  the  kingdom,  they  had  the 
mortification  to  hear  the  holy  league  against  the  emperor 
published  with  great  solemnity. 

Charles  no  sooner  received  an  account  of  this  con- 
federacy than  he  exclaimed,  in  the  most  public  manner 
and  in  the  harshest  terms,  against  Francis,  as  a  prince 
void  of  faith  and  of  honour.  He  complained  no  less 
of  Clement,  whom  he  solicited  in  vain  to  abandon  his 
new  allies ;  he  accused  him  of  ingratitude ;  he  taxed 
him  with  an  ambition  unbecoming  his  character ;  he 

"  Belcar.,  Comment  de  Reb.  Gal.,  573. — M&n.  de  Bellay,  p.  97. 


556  EEIGN  OF  THE  (BOOK  iv. 

threatened  him  not  only  with  all  the  vengeance  which 
the  power  of  an  emperor  can  inflict ;  but,  by  appealing 
to  a  general  council,  called  up  before  his  eyes  all  the 
terrors  arising  from  the  authority  of  those  assemblies 
so  formidable  to  the  papal  see.  It  was  necessary,  how- 
ever, to  oppose  something  else  than  reproaches  and 
threats  to  the  powerful  combination  formed  against 
him ;  and  the  emperor,  prompted  by  so  many  passions, 
did  not  fail  to  exert  himself  with  unusual  vigour  in 
order  to  send  supplies,  not  only  of  men,  but  of  money, 
which  was  still  more  needed,  into  Italy. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  efforts  of  the  confederates 
bore  no  proportion  to  that  animosity  against  the 
emperor  with  which  they  seemed  to  enter  into  the  holy 
league.  Francis,  it  was  thought,  would  have  infused 
spirit  and  vigour  into  the  whole  body.  He  had  his  lost 
honour  to  repair,  many  injuries  to  revenge,  and  the 
station  among  the  princes  of  Europe,  from  which  he  had 
fallen,  to  recover.  From  all  these  powerful  incitements, 
added  to  the  natural  impetuosity  of  his  temper,  a  war 
more  fierce  and  bloody  than  any  that  he  had  hitherto 
made  upon  his  rival  was  expected.  But  Francis  had  gone 
through  such  a  scene  of  distress,  and  the  impression  it 
had  made  was  still  so  fresh  in  his  memory,  that  he  was 
become  diffident  himself,  distrustful  of  fortune,  and  de- 
sirous of  tranquillity.  To  procure  the  release  of  his  sons, 
and  to  avoid  the  restitution  of  Burgundy  by  paying  some 
reasonable  equivalent,  were  his  chief  objects ;  and  for 
the  sake  of  these  he  would  willingly  have  sacrificed 
Sforza,  and  the  liberties  of  Italy,  to  the  emperor.  He 
flattered  himself  that  the  dread  of  the  confederacy 
which  he  had  formed  would  of  itself  induce  Charles  to 
listen  to  what  was  equitable,  and  was  afraid  of  employing 
any  considerable  force  for  the  relief  of  the  Milanese, 
lest  his  allies,  whom  he  had  often  found  to  be  more 
attentive  to  their  own  interest  than  punctual  in  fulfilling 


BCOK  iv.]          EMPEROE  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  557 

their  engagements,  should  abandon  him  as  soon  as  the 
imperialists  were  driven  out  of  that  country,  and  de- 
prive his  negotiations  with  the  emperor  of  that  weight 
which  they  derived  from  his  being  at  the  head  of  a 
powerful  league.  In  the  meantime,  the  castle  of  Milan 
was  pressed  more  closely  than  ever,  and  Sforza  was  now 
reduced  to  the  last  extremity.  The  pope  and  Vene- 
tians, trusting  to  Francis's  concurrence,  commanded 
their  troops  to  take  the  field  in  order  to  relieve  him ; 
and  an  army  more  than  sufficient  for  that  service  was 
soon  formed.  The  Milanese,  passionately  attached  to 
their  unfortunate  duke,  and  no  less  exasperated  against 
the  imperialists,  who  had  oppressed  them  so  cruelly, 
were  ready  to  aid  the  confederates  in  all  their  enter- 
prises. But  the  duke  d'Urbino,  their  general,  naturally 
slow  and  indecisive,  and  restrained,  besides,  by  his  an- 
cient enmity  to  the  family  of  Medici  from  taking  any 
step  that  might  aggrandize  or  add  reputation  to  the 
pope,52  lost  some  opportunities  of  attacking  the  impe- 
rialists and  raising  the  siege,  and  refused  to  improve 
others.  These  delays  gave  Bourbon  time  to  bring  up 
a  reinforcement  of  fresh  troops  and  a  supply  of  money. 
He  immediately  took  the  command  of  the  army,  and 
pushed  on  the  siege  with  such  vigour  as  quickly  obliged 
Sforza  to  surrender,  who,  retiring  to  Lodi,  which  the 
confederates  had  surprised,  left  Bourbon  in  full  posses- 
sion of  the  rest  of  the  duchy,  the  investiture  of  which 
the  emperor  had  promised  to  grant  him.53 

The  Italians  began  now  to  perceive  the  game  which 
Francis  had  played,  and  to  be  sensible  that,  notwith- 
standing all  their  address  and  refinements  in  negotia- 
tion, which  they  boasted  of  as  talents  peculiarly  their 
own,  they  had  for  once  been  overreached  in  those  very 
arts  by  a  tramontane  prince.  He  had  hitherto  thrown 
almost  the  whole  burden  of  the  war  upon  them,  taking 

»2  Guic.,  lib.  xvii.  382.  M  Ibid,  376  etc. 


558  .REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  iv. 

advantage  of  their  efforts  in  order  to  enforce  the  pro- 
posals which  he  often  renewed  at  the  court  of  Madrid 
for  obtaining  the  liberty  of  his  sons.  The  pope  and 
Venetians  expostulated  and  complained  ;54  but,  as  they 
were  not  able  to  rouse  Francis  from,  his  inactivity,  their 
own  zeal  and  vigour  gradually  abated,  and  Clement, 
having  already  gone  farther  than  his  timidity  usually 
permitted  him,  began  to  accuse  himself  of  rashness, 
and  to  relapse  into  his  natural  state  of  doubt  and 
uncertainty. 

All  the  emperor's  motions,  depending  on  himself 
alone,  were  more  brisk  and  better  concerted.  The 
narrowness  of  his  revenues,  indeed,  did  not  allow  him 
to  make  any  sudden  or  great  effort  in  the  field,  but  he 
abundantly  suppplied  that  defect  bj  his  intrigues  and 
negotiations.  The  family  of  Colonna,  the  most  power- 
ful of  all  the  Koman  barons,  had  adhered  uniformly  to 
the  Grhibelline  or  imperial  faction  during  those  fierce 
contentions  between  the  popes  and  emperors  which  for 
several  ages  filled  Italy  and  Germany  with  discord  and 
bloodshed.  Though  the  causes  which  at  first  gave  birth 
to  these  destructive  factions  existed  no  longer,  and  the 
rage  with  which  they  had  been  animated  was  in  a  great 
measure  spent,  the  Colonnas  still  retained  their  attach- 
ment to  the  imperial  interest,  and,  by  placing  them- 
selves under  the  protection  of  the  emperors,  secured 
the  quiet  possession  of  their  own  territories  and  privi- 
leges. The  Cardinal  Pompeo  Colonna,  a  man  of  a 
turbulent  and  ambitious  temper,  at  that  time  the  head 
of  the  family,  had  long  been  Clement's  rival,  to  whose 
influence  in  the  last  conclave  he  imputed  the  dis- 
appointment of  all  his  schemes  for  attaining  the  papal 
dignity,  of  which,  from  his  known  connection  with  the 
emperor,  he  thought  himself  secure.  To  an  aspiring 
mind,  this  was  an  injury  too  great  to  be  forgiven ;  and, 

64  Ruscelli,  Lettere  de'  Principi,  ii.  157,  etc.,  159,  160-166. 


BOOK  iv.]          EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  559 

though  he  had  dissembled  his  resentment  so  far  as  to 
vote  for  Clement  at  his  election,  and  to  accept  of  great 
offices  in  his  court,  he  waited  with  the  utmost  im- 
patience for  an  opportunity  of  being  revenged.  Don 
Hugo  de  Moncada,  the  imperial  ambassador  at  Home, 
who  was  no  stranger  to  these  sentiments,  easily  per- 
suaded him  that  now  was  the  time,  while  all  the  papal 
troops  were  employed  in  Lombardy,  to  attempt  some- 
thing which  would  at  once  avenge  his  own  wrongs  and 
be  of  essential  service  to  the  emperor  his  patron.  The 
pope,  however,  whose  timidity  rendered  him  quick- 
sighted,  was  so  attentive  to  their  operations,  and  began 
to  be  alarmed  so  early,  that  he  might  have  drawn 
together  troops  sufficient  to  have  disconcerted  all 
Colonna's  measures.  But  Moncada  amused  him  so 
artfully  with  negotiations,  promises,  and  false  intelli- 
gence that  he  lulled  asleep  all  his  suspicions,  and  pre- 
vented his  taking  any  of  the  precautions  necessary  for 
his  safety;  and,  to  the  disgrace  of  a  prince,  possessed 
of  great  power  as  well  as  renowned  for  political  wis- 
dom, Colonna,  at  the  head  of  three  thousand  men, 
seized  one  of  the  gates  of  his  capital  while  he, 
imagining  himself  to  be  in  perfect  security,  was  alto- 
gether unprepared  for  resisting  such  a  feeble  enemy. 
The  inhabitants  of  Rome  permitted  Colonna's  troops, 
from  whom  they  apprehended  no  injury,  to  advance 
without  opposition ;  the  pope's  guards  were  dispersed 
in  a  moment;  and  Clement  himself,  terrified  at  the 
danger,  ashamed  of  his  own  credulity,  and  deserted 
by  almost  every  person,  fled  with  precipitation  into  the 
castle  of  St.  Angelo,  which  was  immediately  invested. 
The  palace  of  the  Vatican,  the  church  of  St.  Peter, 
and  the  houses  of  the  pope's  ministers  and  servants 
were  plundered  in  the  most  licentious  manner.  The 
rest  of  the  city  was  left  unmolested.  Clement,  desti- 
tute of  every  thing  necessary  either  for  subsistence  or 


560  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  rv. 

defence,  was  soon  obliged  to  demand  a  capitulation; 
aud  Moncada,  being  admitted  into  the  castle,  pre- 
scribed to  him,  with  all  the  haughtiness  of  a  conqueror, 
conditions  which  it  was  not  in  his  power  to  reject. 
The  chief  of  these  was  that  Clement  should  not  only 
grant  a  full  pardon  to  the  Colonnas,  but  receive  them 
into  favour,  and  immediately  withdraw  all  the  troops 
in  his  pay  from  the  army  of  the  confederates  in 
Lombardy.55 

The  Colonnas,  who  talked  of  nothing  less  than  of 
deposing  Clement  and  of  placing  Pompeo,  their  kins- 
man, in  the  vacant  chair  of  St.  Peter,  exclaimed  loudly 
against  a  treaty  which  left  them  at  the  mercy  of  a 
pontiff  justly  incensed  against  them.  But  Moncada, 
attentive  only  to  his  master's  interest,  paid  little  regard 
to  their  complaints,  and  by  this  fortunate  measure  broke 
entirely  the  power  of  the  confederates. 

While  the  army  of  the  confederates  suffered  such  a  con- 
siderable diminution,  the  imperialists  received  two  great 
reinforcements  ;  one  from  Spain,  under  the  command  of 
Lannoy  and  Alarcon,  which  amounted  to  six  thousand 
men;  the  other  was  raised  in  the  empire  by  George 
Fronsperg,  a  German  nobleman,  who,  having  served  in 
Italy  with  great  reputation,  had  acquired  such  influence 
and  popularity  that  multitudes  of  his  countrymen,  fond 
on  every  occasion  of  engaging  in  military  enterprises, 
and  impatient  at  that  juncture  to  escape  from  the  oppres- 
sion which  they  felt  in  religious  as  well  as  civil  matters, 
crowded  to  his  standard ;  so  that,  without  any  other  gra- 
tuity than  the  payment  of  a  crown  to  each  man,  fourteen 
thousand  enlisted  in  his  service.  To  these  the  Archduke 
Ferdinand  added  two  thousand  horse,  levied  in  the 
Austrian  dominions.  But  although  the  emperor  had 
raised  troops,  he  could  not  remit  the  sums  necessary  for 

"  Jovii  Vita  Pomp.  Colon. — Guic.,  lib.  xvii.   407. — Euscelli,  Lettero 
ie'  Principi,  i,  p.  104. 


BOOK  iv.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  561 

their  support.  His  ordinary  revenues  were  exhausted ; 
the  credit  of  princes,  during  the  infancy  of  commerce, 
was  not  extensive ;  and  the  cortes  of  Castile,  though 
every  art  had  been  tried  to  gain  them,  and  some  innova- 
tions had  been  made  in  the  constitution  in  order  to  secure 
their  concurrence,  peremptorily  refused  to  grant  Charles 
any  extraordinary  supply ; 56  so  that  the  more  his  army 
increased  in  number  the  more  were  his  generals  embar- 
rassed and  distressed.  Bourbon,  in  particular,  was 
involved  in  such  difficulties  that  he  stood  in  need  of  all 
his  address  and  courage  in  order  to  extricate  himself. 
Large  sums  were  due  to  the  Spanish  troops  already  in 
the  Milanese,  when  Fronsperg  arrived  with  sixteen 
thousand  hungry  Germans,  destitute  of  every  thing. 
Both  made  their  demands  with  equal  fierceness,  the 
former  claiming  their  arrears,  and  the  latter  the  pay 
which  had  been  promised  them  on  their  entering  Lom- 
bardy.  Bourbon  was  altogether  incapable  of  giving 
satisfaction  to  either.  In  this  situation  he  was  con- 
strained to  commit  acts  of  violence  extremely  shocking 
to  his  own  nature,  which  was  generous  and  humane.  He 
seized  the  principal  citizens  of  Milan,  and  by  threats,  and 
even  by  torture,  forced  from  them  a  considerable  sum ; 
he  rifled  the  churches  of  all  their  plate  and  ornaments  ; 
the  inadequate  supply  which  these  afforded  he  distributed 
among  the  soldiers,  with  so  many  soothing  expressions 
of  his  sympathy  and  affection  that,  though  it  fell  far 
short  of  the  sums  due  to  them,  it  appeased  their  present 
murmurs.67 

Among  other  expedients  for  raising  money,  Bourbon 
granted  his  life  and  liberty  to  Morone,  who,  having 
been  kept  in  prison  since  his  intrigue  with  Pescara, 
had  been  condemned  to  die  by  the  Spanish  judges 
empowered  to  try  him.  For  this  remission  he  paid 
twenty  thousand  ducats ;  and  such  were  his  singular 

66  Sandoval,  i  814.  *7  Ripamond.  Hist.  Mediol.,  lib.  'ix.  p.  717. 


VOL.  I. 


562  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  iv. 

talents,  and  the  wonderful  ascendant  which  he  always 

/  V 

acquired  over  the  minds  of  those  to  whom  he  had 
access,  that  in  a  few  days,  from  being  Bourbon's 
prisoner,  he  became  his  prime  confidant,  with  whom 
he  consulted  in  all  affairs  of  importance.  To  his  in- 
sinuations must  be  imputed  the  suspicions  which  Bour- 
bon began  to  entertain  that  the  emperor  had  never 
intended  to  grant  him  the  investiture  of  Milan,  but  had 
appointed  Leyva  and  the  other  Spanish  generals  rather 
to  be  spies  on  his  conduct  than  to  co-operate  heartily 
towards  the  execution  of  his  schemes.  To  him  likewise, 
as  he  still  retained,  at  the  age  of  fourscore,  all  the 
enterprising  spirit  of  youth,  may  be  attributed  the  bold 
and  unexpected  measure  on  which  Bourbon  soon  after 
ventured.58 

Such,  indeed,  were  the  exigencies  of  the  imperial 
troops  in  the  Milanese  that  it  became  indispensably 
necessary  to  take  some  immediate  step  for  their  relief. 
The  arrears  of  the  soldiers  increased  daily ;  the  em- 
peror made  no  remittances  to  his  generals ;  and  the 
utmost  rigour  of  military  extortion  could  draw  nothing 
more  from  a  country  entirely  drained  and  ruined.  In 
this  situation  there  was  no  choice  left  but  either  to 
disband  the  army  or  to  march  for  subsistence  into  the 
enemy's  country.  The  territories  of  the  Venetians  lay 
nearest  at  hand ;  but  they,  with  their  usual  foresight 
and  prudence,  had  taken  such  precautions  as  secured 
them  from  any  insult.  Nothing,  therefore,  remained 
but  to  invade  the  dominions  of  the  Church,  or  of  the 
Florentines ;  and  Clement  had  of  late  acted  such  a 
part  as  merited  the  severest  vengeance  from  the  em- 
peror. No  sooner  did  the  papal  troops  return  to  Rome 
after  the  insurrection  of  the  Colonnas,  than,  without 
paying  any  regard  to  the  treaty  with  Moncada,  he 
degraded  the  Cardinal  Colonna,  excommunicated  the 

48  Guic.,  lib.  xvii.  419. 


BOOK  iv.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  563 

rest  of  the  family,  seized  their  places  of  strength,  and 
wasted  their  lands  with  all  the  cruelty  which  the  smart 
of  a  recent  injury  naturally  excites.  After  this  he 
turned  his  arms  against  Naples,  and,  as  his  operations 
were  seconded  by  the  French  fleet,  he  made  some 
progress  towards  the  conquest  of  that  kingdom ;  the 
viceroy  being  no  less  destitute  than  the  other  im- 
perial generals  of  the  money  requisite  for  a  vigorous 
defence.59 

These  proceedings  of  the  pope  justified,  in  appear- 
ance, the  measures  which  Bourbon's  situation  rendered 
necessary ;  and  he  set  about  executing  them  under  such 
disadvantages  as  furnish  the  strongest  proof  both  of  the 
despair  to  which  he  was  reduced,  and  of  the  greatness 
of  his  abilities,  which  were  able  to  surmount  so  many 
obstacles.  Having  committed  the  government  of  Milan 
to  Leyva,  whom  he  was  not  unwilling  to  leave  behind, 
he  began  his  march  in  the  depth  of  winter,  at  the 
head  of  twenty-five  thousand  men,  composed  of  nations 
differing  from  each  other  in  language  and  manners, 
without  money,  without  magazines,  without  artillery, 
without  carriages, — in  short,  without  any  of  those 
things  which  are  necessary  to  the  smallest  party,  and 
which  seem  essential  to  the  existence  and  motions  of  a 
great  army.  His  route  lay  through  a  country  cut  by 
rivers  and  mountains,  in  which  the  roads  were  almost 
impracticable :  as  an  addition  to  his  difficulties,  the 
enemy's  army,  superior  to  his  own  in  number,  was  at 
hand  to  watch  all  his  motions  and  to  improve  every 
advantage.  But  his  troops,  impatient  of  their  present 
hardships,  and  allured  by  the  hopes  of  immense  booty, 
without  considering  how  ill  provided  they  were  for  a 
march,  followed  him  with  great  cheerfulness.  His  first 
scheme  was  to  have  made  himself  master  of  Placentia, 
and  to  have  gratified  his  soldiers  by  the  plunder  of  that 

**  Jovii  Vita  Pomp.  Colon. — Guic.,  lib.  xviii.  4-24. 

o  o  2 


564  EK1GN   OF  THE  [BOOK  iv. 

city  ;  but  the  vigilance  of  the  confederate  generals  ren- 
dered the  design  abortive.  Nor  had  he  better  success 
in  his  project  for  the  reduction  of  Bologna,  which  was 
seasonably  supplied  with  as  many  troops  as  secured  it 
from  the  insults  of  an  army  which  had  neither  artillery 
nor  ammunition.  Having  failed  in  both  these  attempts 
to  become  master  of  some  great  city,  he  was  under  a 
necessity  of  advancing.  But  he  had  now  been  two 
months  in  the  field  ;  his  troops  had  suffered  every 
calamity  that  a  long  march,  together  with  the  uncom- 
mon rigour  of  the  season,  could  bring  upon  men  desti- 
tute of  all  necessary  accommodations  in  an  enemy's 
country ;  the  magnificent  promises  to  which  they 
trusted  had  hitherto  proved  altogether  vain ;  they  saw 
no  prospect  of  relief ;  their  patience,  tried  to  the 
utmost,  failed  at  last,  and  they  broke  out  into  open 
mutiny.  Some  officers,  who  rashly  attempted  to  re- 
strain them,  fell  victims  to  their  fury  :  Bourbon  him- 
self, not  daring  to  appear  during  the  first  transports  of 
their  rage,  was  obliged  to  fly  secretly  from  his  quarters.60 
But  this  sudden  ebullition  of  wrath  began  at  last  to 
subside,  when  Bourbon,  who  possessed  in  a  wonderful 
degree  the  art  of  governing  the  minds  of  soldiers, 
renewed  his  promises  with  more  confidence  than  for- 
merly, and  assured  them  that  they  would  be  soon 
accomplished.  He  endeavoured  to  render  their  hard- 
ships more  tolerable  by  partaking  of  them  himself; 
he  fared  no  better  than  the  meanest  sentinel  ;  he 
marched  along  with  them  on  foot ;  he  joined  them  in 
singing  their  camp  ballads,  in  which,  with  high  praises 
of  his  valour,  they  mingled  many  strokes  of  military 
raillery  on  his  poverty ;  and  wherever  they  came,  he 
allowed  them,  as  a  foretaste  of  what  he  had  promised, 
to  plunder  the  adjacent  villages  at  discretion.  En- 
couraged by  all  these  soothing  arts,  they  entirely  for- 

80  Guic.,  lib.  xviii.  434. — Jovii  Vit.  Colon.,  163. 


BOOK  nr.]          EXIPEROR  CHARLES  THti  FIFTH.  565 

got  their  sufferings  and  complaints,  and  followed  him 
with  the  same  implicit  confidence  as  formerly.61 

Bourbon,  meanwhile,  carefully  concealed  his  inten- 
tions. Rome  and  Florence,  not  knowing  on  which  the 
blow  would  fall,  were  held  in  the  most  disquieting 
state  of  suspense.  Clement,  equally  solicitous  for  the 
safety  of  both,  fluctuated  in  more  than  his  usual  uncer- 
tainty ;  and  while  the  rapid  approach  of  danger  called 
.for  prompt  and  decisive  measures,  he  spent  the  time 
in  deliberations  which  came  to  no  issue,  or  in  taking 
resolutions  which  next  day  his  restless  mind,  more 
sagacious  in  discerning  than  in  obviating  difficulties, 
overturned,  without  being  able  to  fix  on  what  should 
be  substituted  in  their  place.  At  one  time  he  deter- 
mined to  unite  himself  more  closely  than  ever  with  his 
allies,  and  to  push  on  the  war  with  vigour ;  at  another, 
he  inclined  to  bring  all  differences  to  a  final  accom- 
modation by  a  treaty  with  Lannoy,  who,  knowing  his 
passion  for  negotiation,  solicited  him  incessantly  with 
proposals  for  that  purpose.  His  timidity  at  length  pre- 
vailed, and  led  him  to  conclude  an  agreement  with 
Lannoy,  of  which  the  following  were  the  chief  articles  : 
That  a  suspension  of  arms  should  take  place  between 
the  pontifical  and  imperial  troops  for  eight  months ; 
that  Clement  should  advance  sixty  thousand  crowns 
towards  satisfying  the  demands  of  the  imperial  army ; 
that  the  Colonnas  should  be  absolved  from  censure, 
and  their  former  dignities  and  possessions  be  restored 
to  them ;  that  the  viceroy  should  come  to  Rome,  and 
prevent  Bourbon  from  approaching  nearer  to  that  city 
or  to  Florence.62  On  this  hasty  treaty,  which  deprived 
him  of  all  hopes  of  assistance  from  his  allies,  without 
affording  him  any  solid  foundation  of  security,  Clement 
relied  so  firmly  that,  like  a  man  extricated  at  once  out 
of  all  difficulties,  he  was  at  perfect  ease,  and,  in  the 

61  (Euvres  de  Brant,  voL  iv.  p.  246,  etc.          62  Guic.,  lib.  xviii.  436. 


566  REIGN  OF  THE  (B°OK  IV- 

fulness  of  his  confidence,  disbanded  all  his  troops, 
except  as  many  as  were  sufficient  to  guard  his  own 
person.  This  amazing  confidence  of  Clement,  who  on 
every  other  occasion  was  fearful  and  suspicious  to  excess, 
appeared  so  unaccountable  to  Guicciardini,  who,  being 
at  that  time  the  pontifical  commissary-general  and 
resident  in  the  confederate  army,  had  great  opportuni- 
ties, as  well  as  great  abilities,  for  observing  how 
chimerical  all  his  hopes  were,  that  he  imputes  the  pope's 
conduct  at  this  juncture  wholly  to  infatuation,  which 
those  who  are  doomed  to  ruin  cannot  avoid.68 

Lannoy,  it  would  seem,  intended  to  have  executed 
the  treaty  with  great  sincerity,  and,  having  detached 
Clement  from  the  confederacy,  wished  to  turn  Bourbon's 
army  against  the  Venetians,  who,  of  all  the  powers  at 
war  with  the  emperor,  had  exerted  the  greatest  vigour. 
With  this  view,  he  despatched  a  courier  to  Bourbon, 
informing  him  of  the  suspension  of  arms  which,  in  the 
name  of  their  common  master,  he  had  concluded  with 
the  pope.  Bourbon  had  other  schemes,  and  he  had 
prosecuted  them  now  too  far  to  think  of  retreating.  To 
have  mentioned  a  retreat  to  his  soldiers  would  have  been 
dangerous ;  his  command  was  independent  of  Lannoy ; 
he  was  fond  of  mortifying  a  man  whom  he  had  many 
reasons  to  hate :  for  these  reasons,  without  paying  the 
least  regard  to  the  message,  he  continued  to  ravage  the 
ecclesiastical  territories  and  to  advance  towards  Florence. 
Upon  this,  all  Clement's  terror  and  anxiety  returning 
with  new  force,  he  had  recourse  to  Lannoy,  and  entreated 
and  conjured  him  to  put  a  stop  to  Bourbon's  progress. 
Lannoy  accordingly  set  out  for  his  camp,  but  durst  not 
approach  it ;  Bourbon's  soldiers,  having  got  notice  of 
the  truce,  raged  and  threatened,  demanding  the  accom- 
plishment of  the  promises  to  which  they  had  trusted ; 
their  general  himself  could  hardly  restrain  them  ;  every 

*'  Guic.,  lib.  xviii.  446. 


BOOK  iv.]  EMPEROE  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  567 

person  in  Rome  perceived  that  nothing  remained  but 
to  prepare  for  resisting  a  storm  which  it  was  now 
impossible  to  dispel.  Clement  alone,  relying  on  some 
ambiguous  and  deceitful  professions  which  Bourbon 
made  of  his  inclination  towards  peace,  sunk  back  into 
his  former  security.64 

Bourbon,  on  his  part,  was  far  from  being  free  from 
solicitude.  All  his  attempts  on  any  place  of  importance 
had  hitherto  miscarried;  and  Florence,  towards  which 
he  had  been  approaching  for  some  time,  was,  by  the 
arrival  of  the  duke  d'Urbino's  army,  put  in  a  condition 
to  set  his  power  at  defiance.  As  it  now  became  neces- 
sary to  change  his  route,  and  to  take  instantly  some 
new  resolution,  he  fixed  without  hesitation  on  one 
which  was  no  less  daring  in  itself  than  it  was  impious, 
according  to  the  opinion  of  that  age.  This  was  to 
assault  and  plunder  Rome.  Many  reasons,  however, 
prompted  him  to  it.  He  was  fond  of  thwarting  Lannoy, 
who  had  undertaken  for  the  safety  of  that  city ;  he 
imagined  that  the  emperor  would  be  highly  pleased  to 
see  Clement,  the  chief  author  of  the  league  against  him, 
humbled ;  he  flattered  himself  that  by  gratifying  the 
rapacity  of  his  soldiers  with  such  immense  booty  he 
would  attach  them  forever  to  his  interest ;  or  (which  is 
still  more  probable  than  any  of  these)  he  hoped  that  by 
means  of  the  power  and  fame  which  he  would  acquire 
from  the  conquest  of  the  first  city  in  Christendom  he 
might  lay  the  foundation  of  an  independent  power,  and 
that,  after  shaking  off  all  connection  with  the  emperor, 
he  might  take  possession  of  Naples,  or  of  some  of  the 
Italian  states,  in  his  own  name.65 

Whatever  his  motives  were,  he  executed  his  resolu- 
tion with  a  rapidity  equal  to  the  boldness  with  which 
he  had  formed  it.  His  soldiers,  now  that  they  had 

61  Guic.,  lib.  xviii.  437,  etc.—  6i  Brant.,  iv.  271,  vi.  189.— 
M&n.  de  Bellay,  p.  100.  Belcarii  Comment,  594. 


568  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  iv. 

their  prey  full  in  view,  complained  neither  of  fatigue, 
nor  famine,  nor  want  of  pay.  No  sooner  did  they 
begin  to  move  from  Tuscany  towards  Eome  than  the 
pope,  sensible  at  last  how  fallacious  the  hopes  had  been 
on  which  he  reposed,  started  from  his  security.  But 
no  time  now  remained,  even  for  a  bold  and  decisive 
pontiff,  to  have  taken  proper  measures  or  to  have 
formed  any  effectual  plan  of  defence.  "Under  Clement's 
feeble  conduct,  all  was  consternation,  disorder,  and  irre- 
solution. He  collected,  however,  such  of  his  disbanded 
soldiers  as  still  remained  in  the  city;  he  armed  the 
artificers  of  Rome,  and  the  footmen  and  train-bearers 
of  the  cardinals  ;  he  repaired  the  breaches  in  the  walls ; 
he  began  to  erect  new  works;  he  excommunicated 
Bourbon  and  all  his  troops,  branding  the  Germans  with 
the  name  of  Lutherans,  and  the  Spaniards  with  that 
of  Moors.66  Trusting  to  these  ineffectual  military  pre- 
parations, or  to  his  spiritual  arms,  which  were  still 
more  despised  by  rapacious  soldiers,  he  seems  to  have 
laid  aside  his  natural  timidity,  and,  contrary  to  the 
advice  of  all  his  counsellors,  determined  to  wait  the 
approach  of  an  enemy  whom  he  might  easily  have 
avoided  by  a  timely  retreat. 

Bourbon,  who  saw  the  necessity  of  despatch,  now  that 
his  intentions  were  known,  advanced  with  such  speed 
that  he  gained  several  marches  on  the  duke  d'Urbino's 
army,  and  encamped  in  the  plains  of  Eome  on  the 
evening  of  the  5th  of  May.  From  thence  he  showed 
his  soldiers  the  palaces  and  churches  of  that  city,  into 
which,  as  the  capital  of  the  Christian  commonwealth, 
the  riches  of  all  Europe  had  flowed  during  many  cen- 
turies, without  having  been  once  violated  by  any  hostile 
hand,  and,  commanding  them  to  refresh  themselves  that 
night,  as  a  preparation  for  the  assault  next  day,  pro- 

66  Seckend.,  lib.  ii  68. 


BOOK  iv.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  569 

mised  them,  in  reward   of   their   toils  and  valour,  the 
possession  of  all  the  treasures  accumulated  there. 

Early  in  the  morning,  Bourbon,  who  had  determined 
to  distinguish  that  day  either  by  his  death  or  the  suc- 
cess of  his  enterprise,  appeared  at  the  head  of  his 
troops  clad  in  complete  armour,  above  which  he  wore  a 
vest  of  white  tissue,  that  he  might  be  more  conspicuous 
both  to  his  friends  and  to  his  enemies ;  and,  as  all  de- 
pended on  one  bold  impression,  he  led  them  instantly 
to  scale  the  walls.  Three  distinct  bodies,  one  of  Ger- 
mans, another  of  Spaniards,  and  the  last  of  Italians, 
the  three  different  nations  of  whom  the  army  was  com- 
posed, were  appointed  to  this  service ;  a  separate  attack 
was  assigned  to  each;  and  the  whole  army  advanced 
to  support  them,  as  occasion  should  require.  A  thick 
mist  concealed  their  approach  until  they  reached  almost 
the  brink  of  the  ditch  which  surrounded  the  suburbs; 
having  planted  their  ladders  in  a  moment,  each  brigade 
rushed  on  the  assault  with  an  impetuosity  heightened 
by  national  emulation.  They  were  received  at  first  with 
fortitude  equal  to  their  own :  the  Swiss  in  the  pope's 
guards,  and  the  veteran  soldiers  who  had  been  assembled, 
fought  with  a  courage  becoming  men  to  whom  the 
defence  of  the  noblest  city  in  the  world  was  intrusted. 
Bourbon's  troops,  notwithstanding  all  their  valour; 
gained  no  ground,  and  even  began  to  give  way ;  when 
their  leader,  perceiving  that  on  this  critical  moment  the 
fate  of  the  day  depended,  leaped  from  his  horse,  pressed 
to  the  front,  snatched  a  scaling-ladder  from  a  soldier, 
planted  it  against  the  wall,  and  began  to  mount  it, 
encouraging  his  men  with  his  voice  and  hand  to  follow 
him.  But  at  that  very  instant  a  musket-bullet  from  the 
ramparts  pierced  his  groin  with  a  wound  which  he  im- 
mediately felt  to  be  mortal ;  but  he  retained  so  much 
presence  of  mind  as  to  desire  those  who  were  near 
him  to  cover  his  body  with  a  cloak,  that  his  death  might 


570  REIGN    OF    THE  IBOOK  iv. 

not  dishearten  his  troops ;  and  soon  after  he  expired, 
with  a  courage  worthy  of  a  better  cause,  and  which 
would  have  entitled  him  to  the  highest  praise  if  he  had 
thus  fallen  in  defence  of  his  country,  not  at  the  head  of 
its  enemies.67 

This  fatal  event  could  not  be  concealed  from  the 
army ;  the  soldiers  soon  missed  their  general,  whom 
they  were  accustomed  to  see  in  every  time  of  danger ; 
but,  instead  of  being  disheartened  by  their  loss,  it 
animated  them  with  new  valour ;  the  name  of  Bourbon 
resounded  along  the  line,  accompanied  with  the  cry 
of  blood  and  revenge.  The  veterans  who  defended  the 
walls  were  soon  overpowered  by  numbers  ;  the  untrained 
body  of  city  recruits  fled  at  the  sight  of  danger,  and 
the  enemy,  with  irresistible  violence,  rushed  into  the 
town. 

During  the  combat,  Clement  was  employed  at  the 
high  altar  of  St.  Peter's  church  in  offering  up  to  Heaven 
unavailing  prayers  for  victory.  No  sooner  was  he  in- 
formed that  his  troops  began  to  give  way  than  he  fled 
with  precipitation ;  and,  with  an  infatuation  still  more 
amazing  than  any  thing  already  mentioned,  instead  of 
making  his  escape  by  the  opposite  gate,  where  there 
was  no  enemy  to  oppose  it,  he  shut  himself  up,  together 
with  thirteen  cardinals,  the  foreign  ambassadors,  and 
many  persons  of  distinction,  in  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo, 
which,  from  his  late  misfortune,  he  might  have  known 
to  be  an  insecure  retreat.  In  his  way  from  the  Vatican 
to  that  fortress  he  saw  his  troops  flying  before  an  enemy 
who  pursued  without  .giving  quarter ;  he  heard  the  cries 
and  lamentations  of  the  Eoman  citizens,  and  beheld  the 
beginning  of  those  calamities  which  his  own  credulity 
and  ill  conduct  had  brought  upon  his  subjects.68 

It  is  impossible  to  describe,  or  even  to  imagine,  the 

67  M&n.  de  Bellay,  101. — Guic.,      Brant.,  iv.  257,  etc. 
lib.  xviil  p.  445,  etc. — OEuvres  de  6H  Jov.  Vit  Colon.,  165. 


BOOK  rv.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  571 

misery  and  horror  of  that  scene  which  followed.  "What- 
ever a  city  taken  by  storm  can  dread  from  military 
rage  unrestrained  by  discipline,  whatever  excesses  the 
ferocity  of  the  Germans,  the  avarice  of  the  Spaniards, 
or  the  licentiousness  of  the  Italians  could  commit, 
these  wretched  inhabitants  were  obliged  to  suffer. 
Churches,  palaces,  aud  the  houses  of  private  persons 
were  plundered  without  distinction.  "No  age,  or  cha- 
racter, or  sex,  was  exempt  from  injury.  Cardinals, 
nobles,  priests,  matrons,  virgins,  were  all  the  prey  of 
soldiers,  and  at  the  mercy  of  men  deaf  to  the  voice  of 
humanity.  Nor  did  these  outrages  cease,  as  is  usual  in 
towns  which  are  carried  by  assault,  when  the  first  fury 
of  the  storm  was  over  :  the  Imperialists  kept  possession 
of  Rome  several  months ;  and  during  all  that  time  the 
insolence  and  brutality  of  the  soldiers  hardly  abated. 
Their  booty  in  ready  money  alone  amounted  to  a  million 
of  ducats ;  what  they  raised  by  ransoms  and  exactions 
far  exceeded  that  sum.  Rome,  though  taken  several 
different  times  by  the  Northern  nations,  who  overran 
the  empire  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries,  was  never 
treated  with  so  much  cruelty  by  the  barbarous  and 
heathen  Huns,  Vandals,  or  Goths,  as  now  by  the  bigoted 
subjects  of  a  Catholic  monarch.69 

After  Bourbon's  death,  the  command  of  the  imperial 
army  devolved  on  Philibert  de  Chalons,  prince  of 
Orange,  who  with  difficulty  prevailed  on  as  many  of 
his  soldiers  to  desist  from  the  pillage  as  were  necessary 
to  invest  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo.  Clement  was  im- 
mediately sensible  of  his  error  in  having  retired  into 
that  ill-provided  and  untenable  fort.  But  as  the  im- 
perialists, scorning  discipline,  and  intent  only  on  plunder, 
pushed  the  siege  with  little  vigour,  he  did  not  despair 

69  Jov.  Vit.  Colon.,  166. — Guic.,  ii  230. — Ulloa,  Vita  di  Carlo  V., 
lib.  xviii.  440,  etc. — Comment,  de  p.  110,  etc. — Giannone,  Hist,  of 
Capta  Urbe  Rom*,  ap.  Scardium,  Nap.,  b.  xxxi.  c.  3,  p.  507. 


572  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  iv. 

of  holding  out  until  the  duke  d'Urbino  could  come  to 
his  relief.  That  general  advanced  at  the  head  of  an 
army  composed  of  Venetians,  Florentines,  and  Swiss, 
in  the  pay  of  France,  of  sufficient  strength  to  have 
delivered  Clement  from  the  present  danger.  But 
D'Urbino,  preferring  the  indulgence  of  his  hatred 
against  the  family  of  Medici  to  the  glory  of  deliver- 
ing the  capital  of  Christendom  and  the  head  of  the 
Church,  pronounced  the  enterprise  to  be  too  hazardous, 
and,  from  an  exquisite  refinement  in  revenge,  having 
marched  forward  so  far  that  his  army,  being  seen  from 
the  ramparts  of  St.  Angelo,  flattered  the  pope  with  the 
prospect  of  certain  relief,  he  immediately  wheeled  about, 
and  retired.70  Clement,  deprived  of  every  resource,  and 
reduced  to  such  extremity  of  famine  as  to  feed  on 
asses'  flesh,71  was  obliged  to  capitulate  on  such  con- 
ditions as  the  conquerors  were  pleased  to  prescribe. 
He  agreed  to  pay  four  hundred  thousand  ducats  to  the 
army,  to  surrender  to  the  emperor  all  the  places  of 
strength  belonging  to  the  Church,  and,  besides  giving 
hostages,  to  remain  a  prisoner  himself  until  the  chief 
articles  were  performed.  He  was  committed  to  the 
care  of  Alarcon,  who  by  his  severe  vigilance  in  guarding 
Francis  had  given  full  proof  of  his  being  qualified  for 
that  office ;  and  thus,  by  a  singular  accident,  the  same 
man  had  the  custody  of  the  two  most  illustrious  per- 
sonages who  had  been  made  prisoners  in  Europe  during 
several  ages. 

The  account  of  this  extraordinary  and  unexpected 
event  was  no  less  surprising  than  agreeable  to  the 
emperor.  But  in  order  to  conceal  his  joy  from  his 
subjects,  who  were  filled  with  horror  at  the  success  and 
crimes  of  their  countrymen,  and  to  lessen  the  indigna- 
tion of  the  rest  of  Europe,  he  declared  that  Rome  had 
been  assaulted  without  any  order  from  him.  He  wrote 
70  Guic.,  lib.  xviiL  450.  71  Jov.  Vit.  Colon.,  167. 


BOOK  iv.]  EMPEEOE  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  573 

to  all  the  princes  with  whom  he  was  in  alliance,  dis- 
claiming his  having  had  any  knowledge  of  Bourbon's 
intention.72  He  put  himself  and  court  into  mourning ; 
commanded  the  rejoicings  which  had  been  ordered  for 
the  birth  of  his  son  Philip  to  be  stopped ;  and,  em- 
ploying an  artifice  no  less  hypocritical  than  gross,  he 
appointed  prayers  and  processions  throughout  all  Spain 
for  the  recovery  of  the  pope's  liberty,  which,  by  an 
order  to  his  generals,  he  could  have  immediately  granted 
him.73 

The  good  fortune  of  the  house  of  Austria  was  no 
less  conspicuous  in  another  part  of  Europe.  Solyman 
having  invaded  Hungary  with  an  army  of  three  hundred 
thousand  men,  Lewis  II.,  king  of  that  country  and 
of  Bohemia,  a  weak  and  unexperienced  prince,  advanced 
rashly  to  meet  Tiim  with  a  body  of  men  which  did 
not  amount  to  thirty  thousand.  With  an  imprudence 
still  more  unpardonable,  he  gave  the  command  of  these 
troops  to  Paul  Tomorri,  a  Franciscan  monk,  archbishop 
of  Golocza.  This  awkward  general,  in  the  dress  of 
his  order,  girt  with  its  cord,  marched  at  the  head  of 
the  troops ;  and,  hurried  on  by  his  own  presumption, 
as  well  as  by  the  impetuosity  of  nobles  who  despised 
danger  but  were  impatient  of  long  service,  he  fought 
the  fatal  battle  of  Mohacz,  in  which  the  king,  the 
flower  of  the  Hungarian  nobility,  and  upwards  of 
twenty  thousand  men,  fell,  the  victims  of  his  folly  and 
ill  conduct.  Solyman,  after  his  victory,  seized  and  kept 
possession  of  several  towns  of  the  greatest  strength  in 
the  southern  provinces  of  Hungary,  and,  overrunning 
the  rest  of  the  country,  carried  near  two  hundred 
thousand  persons  into  captivity.  As  Lewis  was  the 
last  male  of  the  royal  family  of  Jagellon,  the  Archduke 
Ferdinand  claimed  both  his  crowns.  This  claim  was 

n  Euscelli,  Lettere  de'  Principi,  '3  Sleid.,  109. — Sandova],  i  822. 
ii.  234.  — Mauroc.  Hist.  Veneta, lib.  iii.  220. 


574  EEIGN  OF  THE  1*00*  rv. 

founded  on  a  double  title ;  the  one  derived  from  the 
ancient  pretensions  of  the  house  of  Austria  to  both 
kingdoms,  the  other  from  the^  right  of  his  wife,  the 
only  sister  of  the  deceased  monarch.  The  feudal  in- 
stitutions, however,  subsisted  both  in  Hungary  and 
Bohemia  in  such  vigour,  and  the  nobles  possessed  such 
extensive  power,  that  the  crowns  were  still  elective, 
and  Ferdinand's  rights,  if  they  had  not  been  power- 
fully supported,  would  have  met  with  little  regard. 
But  his  own  personal  merit,  the  respect  due  to  the 
brother  of  the  greatest  monarch  in  Christendom,  the 
necessity  of  choosing  a  prince  able  to  afford  his  sub- 
jects some  additional  protection  against  the  Turkish 
arms,  which,  as  they  had  recently  felt  their  power, 
they  greatly  dreaded,  together  with  the  intrigues  of 
his  sister,  who  had  been  married  to  the  late  king, 
overcame  the  prejudices  which  the  Hungarians  had 
conceived  against  the  archduke  as  a  foreigner,  and, 
though  a  considerable  party  voted  for  the  Yaywode  of 
Transylvania,  at  length  secured  Ferdinand  the  throne 
of  that  kingdom.  The  states  of  Bohemia  imitated  the 
example  of  their  neighbour  kingdom  ;  but,  in  order  to 
ascertain  and  secure  their  own  privileges,  they  obliged 
Ferdinand,  before  his  coronation,  to  subscribe  a  deed, 
which  they  term  a  reverse,  declaring  that  he  held  that 
crown  not  by  any  previous  right,  but  by  their  gratuitous 
and  voluntary  election.  By  such  a  vast  accession  of 
territories,  the  hereditary  possession  of  which  they 
secured  in  process  of  time  to  their  family,  the  princes 
of  the  house  of  Austria  attained  that  pre-eminence  in 
power  which  hath  rendered  them  so  formidable  to  the 
rest  of  Germany.74 

The    dissensions    between    the    pope    and    emperor 

74  Steph.  Broderick  Procancellarii      Hist,  d'  Allemagne,  torn.  viii.  part 
Hungar. — Clades  in  Campo  Mohacz,      i  p.  198. 
ap.  Scardium,  ii   218. — P.  Barre, 


BOOK  iv.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  575 

proved  extremely  favourable  to  the  progress  of  Luther- 
anism.  Charles,  exasperated  by  Clement's  conduct, 
and  fully  employed  in  opposing  the  league  which  he 
had  formed  against  him,  had  little  inclination,  and  less 
leisure,  to  take  any  measures  for  suppressing  the  new 
opinions  in  Germany.  In  a  diet  of  the  empire  held  at 
Spires,  the  state  of  religion  came  to  be  considered,  and 
all  that  the  emperor  required  of  the  princes  was  that 
they  would  wait  patiently,  and  without  encouraging 
innovations,  for  the  meeting  of  a  general  council,  which 
he  had  demanded  of  the  pope.  "They,  in  return,  ac- 
knowledged the  convocation  of  a  council  to  be  the 
proper  and  regular  step  towards  reforming  abuses  in 
the  Church,  but  contended  that  a  national  council  held 
in  Germany  would  be  more  effectual  for  that  purpose 
than  what  he  had  proposed.  To  his  advice  concern- 
ing the  discouragement  of  innovations  they  paid  so 
little  regard  that,  even  during  the  meeting  of  the  diet 
at  Spires,  the  divines  who  attended  the  elector  of 
Saxony  and  landgrave  of  Hesse-Cassel  thither  preached 
publicly,  and  administered  the  sacraments,  according 
to  the  rites  of  the  Kefonned  Church.75  The  emperor's 
own  example  emboldened  the  Germans  to  treat  the 
papal  authority  with  little  reverence.  During  the  heat 
of  his  resentment  against  Clement,  he  had  published  a 
long  reply  to  an  angry  brief  which  the  pope  had  in- 
tended as  an  apology  for  his  own  conduct.  In  this 
manifesto,  the  emperor,  after  having  enumerated  many 
instances  of  that  pontiff's  ingratitude,  deceit,  and  am- 
bition, all  which  he  painted  in  the  strongest  and  most 
aggravated  colours,  appealed  from  him  to  a  general 
council.  At  the  same  time  he  wrote  to  the  college  of 
cardinals,  complaining  of  Clement's  partiality  and  in- 
justice, and  requiring  them,  if  he  refused  or  delayed 
to  call  a  council,  to  show  their  concern  for  the  peace 

71  Sleid.,  103. 


576  EEIGN  OF  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  [BOOK  iv. 

of  the  Christian  Church  so  shamefully  neglected  by  its 
chief  pastor,  by  summoning  that  assembly  in  their  own 
name.76  This  manifesto,  little  inferior  in  virulence  to 
the  invectives  of  Luther  himself,  was  dispersed  over 
Germany  with  great  industry,  and,  being  eagerly  read 
by  persons  of  every  rank,  did  much  more  than  coun- 
terbalance the  effect  of  all  Charles's  declarations  against 
the  new  opinions. 

76  Goldast.,  Polit.  Imper.,  p.  984 


BOOK    V. 


General  Indignation  and  Confederacy  against  the  Emperor. — The  Floren- 
tines.— The  French  Army  in  Italy. — The  Emperor  sets  the  Pope  at 
Liberty,  and  makes  Pacific  Overtures. — A  Royal  Challenge. — Retreat 
of  the  Imperial  Army  from  Rome. — The  French  hesiege  Naples. — 
Revolt  of  Andrew  Doria. — Freedom  of  Genoa. — Operations  in  the 
Milanese. — Treaty  between  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor,  and  between 
Charles  and  Francis. — Henry  VIII.  seeks  a  Divorce  from  his  Queen, 
Catharine  of  Aragon. — Charles  visits  Italy  and  re-establishes  tiie 
Power  of  the  Medici. — Returns  to  Germany. — -The  Diet  of  Spires. — 
The  Protest. — The  Diet  of  Augsburg. — Decree  against  the  Protest- 
ants.— Charles  makes  his  Brother  Ferdinand  King  of  the  Romans. — 
Negotiations  of  the  Protestants. — The  Campaign  in  Hungary. — 
Coufeience  between  the  Emperor  and  the  Pope. — Movements  of  the 
French  King. — Henry  divorced  from  Queen  Catharine  by  the  Arch- 
bishop, and  excommunicated  by  the  Pope. — Papal  Authority  abolished 
in  England. —Death  of  Clement  VII. — Pope  Paul  III. — Insurrection 
of  the  Anabaptists  in  Germany. — They  become  Masters  of  Munster.  — 
John  of  Leyden  crowned  King. — Confederacy  against  him. — Munster 
besieged  and  taken. — The  League  of  Smalkalde. — Expedition  of  the 
Emperor  to  Africa, — The  Barbary  States. — -The  Barbarossas. — Con- 
quest of  Tunis. — The  Emperor  besieges  Goletta,  defeats  Barbarossa, 
and  restores  the  King  of  Tunis. 

THE  account  of  the  cruel  manner  in  which,  the  pope 
had  been  treated  filled  all  Europe  with  astonishment  or 
horror.  To  see  a  Christian  emperor,  who,  by  possess- 
ing that  dignity,  ought  to  have  been  the  protector  and 
advocate  of  the  holy  see,  lay  violent  hands  on  him 
who  represented  Christ  on  earth,  and  detain  his  sacred 
person  in  a  rigorous  captivity,  was  considered  as  an 
impiety  that  merited  the  severest  vengeance  and  which 
called  for  the  immediate  interposition  of  every  dutiful 
son  of  the  Church.  Francis  and  Henry,  alarmed  at 

the  progress  of  the  imperial  arms  in  Italy,  had,  even 
VOL.  i.  r  r 


578  EEIGN  OP  tHE  [BOOK  V. 

before  the  taking  of  Rome,  entered  into  a  closer  alli- 
ance, and)  in  order  to  give  some  check  to  the  emperor's 
ambition)  had  agreed  to  make  a  vigorous  diversion  in 
the  Low  Countries.  The  force  of  every  motive  which 
had  influenced  them  at  that  time  was  now  increased; 
and  to  these  was  added  the  desire  of  rescuing  the  pope 
out  of  the  emperor's  hands,  a  measure  no  less  politic; 
than  it  appeared  to  be  pious.  This,  however,  rendered 
it  necessary  to  abandon  their  hostile  intentions  against 
the  Low  Countries,  and  to  make  Italy  the  seat  of  war, 
as  it  was  by  vigorous  operations  there  they  might  con- 
tribute most  effectually  towards  delivering  Rome  and 
setting  Clement  at  liberty.  Francis,  being  now  sensible 
that  in  his  system  with  regard  to  the  affairs  of  Italy  the 
spirit  of  refinement  had  carried  him  too  far,  and  that  by 
an  excess  of  remissness  he  had  allowed  Charles  to  attain 
advantages  which  he  might  easily  have  prevented,  was 
eager  to  make  reparation  for  an  error  of  which  he  was 
not  often  guilty,  by  an  activity  more  suitable  to  his 
temper.  Henry  thought  his  interposition  necessary  in 
order  to  hinder  the  emperor  from  becoming  master  of 
all  Italy,  and  acquiring  by  that  means  such  superiority 
of  power  as  would  enable  him  for  the  future  to  dictate 
without  control  to  the  other  princes  of  Europe.  Wolsey, 
whom  Francis  had  taken  care  to  secure  by  flattery  and 
presents,  the  certain  methods  of  gaining  his  favour, 
neglected  nothing  that  could  incense  his  master  against 
the  emperor.  Besides  all  these  public  considerations, 
Henry  was  influenced  by  one  of  a  more  private  nature  : 
having  begun  about  this  time  to  form  his  great  scheme 
of  divorcing  Catharine  of  Aragon,  towards  the  execution 
of  which  he  knew  that  the  sanction  of  papal  authority 
would  be  necessary,  he  was  desirous  to  acquire  as  much 
merit  as  possible  with  Clement,  by  appearing  to  be  the 
chief  instrument  of  his  deliverance. 

The  negotiation,   between  princes  thus  disposed,  was 


SOCK  v.]  EMPEROfi  CHA&LES  THE  FIFTH.  579 

not  tedious.  Wolsey  himself  conducted  it,  on  the  part 
of  his  sovereign,  with  unbounded  powers.  Francis 
treated  with  him  in  person  at  Amiens,  where  the  cardinal 
appeared,  and  was  received  with  royal  magnificence.  A 
marriage  between  the  duke  of  Orleans  and  the  princess 
Mary  was  agreed  to  as  the  basis  of  the  confederacy; 
it  was  resolved  that  Italy  should  be  the  theatre  of  war ; 
the  strength  of  the  army  which  should  take  the  field, 
as  well  as  the  contingent  of  troops  or  of  money  which 
each  prince  should  furnish,  were  settled ;  and  if  the 
emperor  did  not  accept  of  the  proposals  which  they 
were  jointly  to  make  him,  they  bound  themselves 
immediately  to  declare  war,  and  to  begin  hostilities. 
Henry,  who  took  every  resolution  with  impetuosity, 
entered  so  eagerly  into  this  new  alliance  that,  in  order 
to  give  Francis  the  strongest  proof  of  his  friendship 
and  respect,  he  formally  renounced  the  ancient  claim 
of  the  English  monarchs  to  the  crown  of  France,  which 
had  long  been  the  pride  and  ruin  of  the  nation ;  as  a 
full  compensation  for  which,  he  accepted  a  pension  of 
fifty  thousand  crowns,  to  be  paid  annually  to  himself 
and  his  successors.1 

The  pope,  being  unable  to  fulfil  the  conditions  of 
his  capitulation,  still  remained  a  prisoner,  under  the 
severe  custody  of  Alarcon.  The  Florentines  no  sooner 
heard  of  what  had  happened  at  Home  than  they  ran 
to  arms  in  a  tumultuous  manner,  expelled  the  car- 
dinal di  Cortona,  who  governed  their  city  in  the  pope's 
name,  defaced  the  arms  of  the  Medici,  broke  in  pieces 
the  statues  of  Leo  and  Clement,  and,  declaring  them- 
selves a  free  state,  re-established  their  ancient  popular 
government.  The  Venetians,  taking  advantage  of  the 
calamity  of  their  ally  the  pope,  seized  Ravenna,  and 
other  places  belonging  to  the  Church,  under  pretext  of 
keeping  them  in  deposit.  The  dukes  of  Urbino  and 

'  Herbert,  83,  etc. — Rym.  Feed.,  xiv.  203. 

F  Pi 


580  REIGN  OF  THE  LBOOK  v. 

Ferrara  laid  hold  likewise  on  part  of  the  spoils  of  the 
unfortunate  pontiff,  whom  they  considered  as  irretriev- 
ably ruined.8 

Lannoy,  on  the  other  hand,  laboured  to  derive  some 
solid  benefit  from  that  unforeseen  event  which  gave 
such  splendour  and  superiority  to  his  master's  arms. 
For  this  purpose  he  marched  to  Eome,  together  with 
Moncada  and  the  marquis  del  Guasto,  at  the  head  of  all 
the  troops  which  they  could  assemble  in  the  kingdom 
of  Naples.  The  arrival  of  this  reinforcement  brought 
new  calamities  on  the  unhappy  citizens  of  Home ;  for 
the  soldiers,  envying  the  wealth  of  their  companions, 
imitated  their  license,  and  with  the  utmost  rapacity 
gathered  the  gleanings  which  had  escaped  the  avarice 
of  the  Spaniards  and  Germans.  There  was  not  now 
any  army  in  Italy  capable  of  making  head  against  the 
imperialists  ;  and  nothing  more  was  requisite  to  reduce 
Bologna  and  the  other  towns  in  the  ecclesiastical  state 
than  to  have  appeared  before  them.  But  the  soldiers, 
having  been  so  long  accustomed,  under  Bourbon,  to  an 
entire  relaxation  of  discipline,  and  having  tasted  the 
sweets  of  living  at  discretion  in  a  great  city,  almost 
without  the  control  of  a  superior,  were  become  so  impa- 
tient of  military  subordination,  and  so  averse  to  service, 
that  they  refused  to  leave  Eome  unless  all  their  arrears 
were  paid, — a  condition  which  they  knew  to  be  impos- 
sible. At  the  same  time  they  declared  that  they  would 
not  obey  any  other  person  than  the  prince  of  Orange, 
whom  the  army  had  chosen  general.  Lannoy,  finding 
that  it  was  no  longer  safe  for  him  to  remain  among  licen- 
tious troops  who  despised  his  dignity  and  hated  his 
person,  returned  to  Naples  ;  soon  after,  the  marquis  del 
Guasto  and  Moncada  thought  it  prudent  to  quit  Eome, 
for  the  same  reason.  The  prince  of  Orange,  a  general 
only  in  name,  and  by  the  most  precarious  of  all  tenures, 

8  Guic.,  lib.  xviii  453. 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEKOR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  581 

the  good  will  of  soldiers  whom  success  and  license  had 
rendered  capricious,  was  obliged  to  pay  more  attention 
to  their  humours  than  they  did  to  his  commands.  Thus 
the  emperor,  instead  of  reaping  any  of  the  advantages 
which  he  might  have  expected  from  the  reduction  of 
Eome,  had  the  mortification  to  see  the  most  formidable 
body  of  troops  that  he  had  ever  brought  into  the  field 
continue  in  a  state  of  inactivity  from  which  it  was  impos- 
sible to  rouse  them.8 

This  gave  the  king  of  France  and  the  Venetians  leisure 
to  form  new  schemes  and  to  enter  into  new  engagements 
for  delivering  the  pope  and  preserving  the  liberties  of 
Italy.  The  newly-restored  republic  of  Florence  very 
imprudently  joined  with  them,  and  Lautrec,  of  whose 
abilities  the  Italians  entertained  a  much  more  favourable 
opinion  than  his  own  master,  was,  in  order  to  gratify 
them,  appointed  generalissimo  of  the  league.  It  was 
with  the  utmost  reluctance  he  undertook  the  office,  being 
unwilling  to  expose  himself  a  second  time  to  the  difficul- 
ties and  disgraces  which  the  negligence  of  the  king 
or  the  malice  of  his  favourites  might  bring  upon  him. 
The  best  troops  in  France  marched  under  his  com- 
mand, and  the  king  of  England,  though  he  had  not  yet 
declared  war  against  the  emperor,  advanced  a  consider- 
able sum  towards  carrying  on  the  expedition.  Lautrec's 
first  operations  were  prudent,  vigorous,  and  successful. 
By  the  assistance  of  Andrew  Doria,  the  ablest  sea-officer 
of  that  age,  he  rendered  himself  master  of  Genoa,  and 
re-established  in  that  republic  the  faction  of  the  Fregosi, 
together  with  the  dominion  of  France.  He  obliged 
Alexander  to  surrender  after  a  short  siege,  and  reduced 
all  the  country  on  that  side  of  the  Tessino.  He  took 
Pavia,  which  had  so  long  resisted  the  arms  of  his  sove- 
reign, by  assault,  and  plundered  it  with  that  cruelty 
which  the  memory  of  the  fatal  disaster  that  had  befallen 

3  Guic.,  lib.  xviii.  454. 


582  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  v 

the  French  nation  before  its  walls  naturally  inspired. 
All  the  Milanese,  which  Antonio  de  Leyva  defended 
with  a  small  body  of  troops  kept  together  and  sup- 
ported by  his  own  address  and  industry,  must  have 
soon  submitted  to  his  power  if  he  had  continued  to  bend 
the  force  of  his  arms  against  that  country.  But  Lautrec 
durst  not  complete  a  conquest  which  would  have  been  so 
honourable  to  himself  and  of  such  advantage  to  the 
league.  Francis  knew  his  confederates  to  be  more  de- 
sirous of  circumscribing  the  imperial  power  in  Italy 
than  of  acquiring  new  territories  for  him,  and  was  afraid 
that  if  Sforza  were  once  re-established  in  Milan  they 
would  second  but  coldly  the  attack  which  he  intended 
to  make  on  the  kingdom  of  Naples.  For  this  reason,  he 
instructed  Lautrec  not  to  push  his  operations  with  too 
much  vigour  in  Lombardy ;  and  happily  the  importuni- 
ties of  the  pope  and  the  solicitations  of  the  Florentines, 
the  one  for  relief  and  the  other  for  protection,  were  so 
urgent  as  to  furnish  him  with  a  decent  pretext  for 
marching  forward  without  yielding  to  the  entreaties  of 
the  Venetians  and  Sforza,  who  insisted  on  his  laying 
siege  to  Milan.4 

While  Lautrec  advanced  slowly  towards  Eome,  the 
emperor  had  time  to  deliberate  concerning  the  disposal 
of  the  pope's  person,  who  still  remained  a  prisoner  in 
the  castle  of  St.  Angelo.  Notwithstanding  the  specious 
veil  of  religion  with  which  he  usually  endeavoured  to 
cover  his  actions,  Charles  in  many  instances  appears 
to  have  been  but  little  under  the  influence  of  religious 
considerations,  and  had  frequently,  on  this  occasion, 
expressed  an  inclination  to  transport  the  pope  into 
Spain,  that  he  might  indulge  his  ambition  with  the 
spectacle  of  the  two  most  illustrious  personages  in 
Europe  successively  prisoners  in  his  court.  But  the 

4  Quic.,  lib.  xviii.  461. — Bellay,  107,  etc. — Mauroc.,  Hist.  Venet., 
lib.  iii.  238. 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  583 

fear  of  giving  new  offence  to  all  Christendom,  and  of 
filling  his  own  subjects  with  horror,  obliged  him  to 
forego  that  satisfaction.8  The  progress  of  the  confede- 
rates made  it  now  necessary  either  to  set  the  pope  at 
liberty  or  to  remove  him  to  some  place  of  confinement 
more  secure  than  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo.  Many 
considerations  induced  him  to  prefer  the  former,  par- 
ticularly his  want  of  the  money  requisite  as  well  for 
recruiting  his  army  as  for  paying  off  the  vast  arrears 
due  to  it.  In  order  to  obtain  this,  he  had  assembled 
the  cortes  of  Castile  at  Valladolid  about  the  beginning 
of  the  year,  and,  having  laid  before  them  the  state  of 
his  affairs  and  represented  the  necessity  of  making 
great  preparations  to  resist  the  enemies  whom  envy  at 
the  success  which  had  crowned  his  arms  would  unite 
against  him,  he  demanded  a  large  supply  in  the  most 
pressing  terms;  but  the  cortes,  as  the  nation  was 
already  exhausted  by  extraordinary  donatives,  refused 
to  load  it  with  any  new  burden,  and,  in  spite  of  all 
his  endeavours  to  gain  or  to  intimidate  the  members, 
persisted  in  this  resolution.6  No  resource,  therefore, 
remained  but  the  extorting  from  Clement,  by  way  of 
ransom,  a  sum  sufficient  for  discharging  what  was  due 
to  his  troops,  without  which  it  was  vain  to  mention  to 
them  their  leaving  Rome. 

Nor  was  the  pope  inactive  on  his  part,  or  his  in- 
trigues unsuccessful  towards  hastening  such  a  treaty. 
By  flattery,  and  the  appearance  of  unbounded  confi- 
dence, he  disarmed  the  resentment  of  cardinal  Colonna, 
and  wrought  upon  his  vanity,  which  made  him  desirous 
of  showing  the  world  that,  as  his  power  had  at  first 
depressed  the  pope,  it  could  now  raise  him  to  his  former 
dignity.  By  favours  and  promises  he  gained  Morone, 
who,  by  one  of  those  whimsical  revolutions  which  occur 
so  often  in  his  life,  and  which  so  strongly  display  his 

s  Guic.,  lib.  xviii.  457.  6  Sandoval,  i.  814. 


584  EEIGIN'    UF  THE  tBOOK  v- 

character,  had  now  recovered  his  credit  and  authority 
with  the  imperialists.  The  address  and  influence  of  two 
such  men  easily  removed  all  the  obstacles  which  re- 
tarded an  accommodation,  and  brought  the  treaty  for 
Clement's  liberty  to  a  conclusion,  upon  conditions  hard, 
indeed,  but  not  more  severe  than  a  prince  in  his  situation 
had  reason  to  expect.  He  was  obliged  to  advance,  in 
ready  money,  a  hundred  thousand  crowns  for  the  use  of 
the  army,  to  pay  the  same  sum  at  the  distance  of  a  fort- 
night, and,  at  the  end  of  three  months,  a  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  more.  He  engaged  not  to  take  part  in 
the  war  against  Charles,  either  in  Lombardy  or  in 
Naples ;  he  granted  him  a  bull  of  cruzado,  and  the  tenth 
of  ecclesiastical  revenues  in  Spain;  and  he  not  only 
gave  hostages,  but  put  the  emperor  in  possession  of 
several  towns,  as  a  security  for  the  performance  of  these 
articles.7  Having  raised  the  first  moiety  by  a  sale  of 
ecclesiastical  dignities  and  benefices,  and  other  expe- 
dients equally  uncanonical,  a  day  was  fixed  for  deliver- 
ing him  from  imprisonment.  But  Clement,  impatient  to 
be  free,  after  a  tedious  confinement  of  six  months,  as 
well  as  full  of  the  suspicion  and  distrust  natural  to  the 
unfortunate,  was  so  much  afraid  that  the  imperialists 
might  still  throw  in  obstacles  to  put  off  his  deliverance 
that  he  disguised  himself,  on  the  night  preceding  the  day 
when  he  was  to  be  set  free,  in  the  habit  of  a  merchant, 
and,  Alarcon  having  remitted  somewhat  of  his  vigilance 
upon  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty,  he  made  his  escape 
undiscovered.  He  arrived  before  next  morning  at  Orvi- 
etto,  without  any  attendants  but  a  single  officer,  and  from 
thence  wrote  a  letter  of  thanks  to  Lautrec,  as  the  chief 
instrument  of  procuring  him  liberty.8 

During  these  transactions,  the  ambassadors  of  France 
and  England  repaired  to  Spain,  in  consequence  of  the 

7  Guic.,  lib.  xviii.  467,  etc.  Jov.,  Vit.  Colon..    169. — Mauw,., 

8  Guic.,  lib.   xviii.    467,   etc. —      Hist.  Venet,  lib.  iii.  252. 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEEOR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  585 

treaty  which  Wolsey  had  concluded  with  the  French 
king.  The  emperor,  unwilling  to  draw  on  himself  the 
united  forces  of  the  two  monarchs,  discovered  an  inclina- 
tion to  relax  somewhat  the  rigour  of  the  treaty  of 
Madrid,  to  which  hitherto  he  had  adhered  inflexibly. 
He  offered  to  accept  of  the  two  millions  of  crowns  which 
Francis  had  proposed  to  pay  as  an  equivalent  for  the 
duchy  of  Burgundy,  and  to  set  his  sons  at  liberty,  on 
condition  that  he  would  recall  his  army  out  of  Italy,  and 
restore  Genoa,  together  with  the  other  conquests  which 
he  had  made  in  that  country.  With  regard  to  Sforza, 
he  insisted  that  his  fate  should  be  determined  by  the 
judges  appointed  to  inquire  into  his  crimes.  These  pro- 
positions being  made  to  Henry,  he  transmitted  them  to 
his  ally,  the  French  king,  whom  it  more  nearly  con- 
cerned to  examine  and  to  answer  them ;  and  if  Francis 
had  been  sincerely  solicitous  either  to  conclude  peace  or 
to  preserve  consistency  in  his  own  conduct,  he  ought 
instantly  to  have  closed  with  overtures  which  differed 
but  little  from  the  propositions  which  he  himself  had 
formerly  made.9  But  his  views  were  now  much 
changed  :  his  alliance  with  Henry,  Lautrec's  progress  in 
Italy,  and  the  superiority  of  his  army  there  above  that 
of  the  emperor,  hardly  left  him  room  to  doubt  of  the 
success  of  his  enterprise  against  Naples.  Full  of  these 
sanguine  hopes,  he  was  at  no  loss  to  find  pretexts  for 
rejecting  or  evading  what  the  emperor  had  proposed. 
Under  the  appearance  of  sympathy  with  Sforza,  for 
whose  interests  he  had  not  hitherto  discovered  much 
solicitude,  he  again  demanded  the  full  and  uncondi- 
tional re-establishment  of  that  unfortunate  prince  in 
his  dominions.  Under  colour  of  its  being  imprudent 
to  rely  on  the  emperor's  sincerity,  he  insisted  that  his 
sons  should  be  set  at  liberty  before  the  French  troops 
left  Italy  or  surrendered  Genoa.  The  unreasonable- 

9  Recueil  des  Traite's,  ii.  249. 


586  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  v. 

ness  of  these  demands,  as  well  as  the  reproachful  in- 
sinuations with  which  they  were  accompanied,  irritated 
Charles  to  such  a  degree  that  he  could  harly  listen  to 
them  with  patience,  and,  repenting  of  his  moderation, 
which  had  made  so  little  impression  on  his  enemies, 
declared  that  he  would  not  depart  in  the  smallest  article 
from  the  conditions  which  he  had  now  offered.  Upon 
this,  the  French  and  English  ambassadors  (for  Henry 
had  been  drawn  unaccountably  to  concur  with  Francis  in 
these  strange  propositions)  demanded  and  obtained  their 
audience  of  leave.10 

Next  day,  two  heralds,  who  had  accompanied  the 
ambassadors  on  purpose,  though  they  had  hitherto 
concealed  their  character,  having  assumed  the  ensigns 
of  their  office,  appeared  in  the  emperor's  court,  and, 
being  admitted  into  his  presence,  they,  in  the  name 
of  their  respective  masters,  and  with  all  the  solemnities 
customary  on  such  occasions,  denounced  war  against 
him.  Charles  received  both  with  a  dignity  suitable  to 
his  own  rank,  but  spoke  to  each  in  a  tone  adapted  to 
the  sentiments  which  he  entertained  of  the  sovereigns. 
He  accepted  the  defiance  of  the  English  monarch  with  a 
firmness  tempered  by  some  degree  of  decency  and 
respect.  His  reply  to  the  French  king  abounded  with 
that  acrimony  of  expression  which  personal  rivalship, 
exasperated  by  the  memory  of  many  injuries  inflicted  as 
well  as  suffered,  naturally  suggests.  He  desired  the 
French  herald  to  acquaint  his  sovereign  that  he  would 
henceforth  consider  him  not  only  as  a  base  violater  of 
public  faith,  but  as  a  stranger  to  the  honour  and  inte- 
grity becoming  a  gentleman.  Francis,  too  high-spirited 
to  bear  such  an  imputation,  had  recourse  to  an  uncommon 
expedient  in  order  to  vindicate  his  character.  He  in- 
stantly sent  back  the  herald  with  a  cartel  of  defiance,  in 
which  he  gave  the  emperor  the  lie  in  form,  challenged 

10  Rym.,  xiv.  200. — Herbert,  85. — Guic.,  lib.  xviiL  471 


BOOK  v.J  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  587 

him  to  single  combat,  requiring  him  to  name  the  time 
and  place  for  the  encounter,  and  the  weapons  with  which 
he  chose  to  fight.  Charles,  as  he  was  not  inferior  to  his 
rival  in  spirit  or  bravery,  readily  accepted  the  challenge ; 
but,  after  several  messages  concerning  the  arrangement  of 
all  the  circumstances  relative  to  the  combat,  accompanied 
with  mutual  reproaches,  bordering  on  the  most  indecent 
scurrility,  all  thoughts  of  this  duel,  more  becoming  the 
heroes  of  romance  than  the  two  greatest  monarchs  of  their 
age,  were  entirely  laid  aside.11 

The  example  of  two  personages  so  illustrious  drew 
such  general  attention,  and  carried  with  it  so  much 
authority,  that  it  had  considerable  influence  in  pro- 
ducing an  important  change  in  manners  all  over 
Europe.  Duels,  as  has  already  been  observed,  had 
long  been  permitted  by  the  laws  of  all  the  European 
nations,  and,  forming  a  part  of  their  jurisprudence, 
were  authorized  by  the  magistrate,  on  many  occasions, 
as  the  most  proper  method  of  terminating  questions 
with  regard  to  property,  or  of  deciding  those  which 
respected  crimes.  But  single  combats  being  considered 
as  solemn  appeals  to  the  omniscience  and  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Being,  they  were  allowed  only  in  public 
causes,  according  to  the  prescription  of  law,  and  carried 
on  in  a  judicial  form.  Men  accustomed  to  this  manner 
of  decisions  in  courts  of  justice  were  naturally  led 
to  apply  it  to  personal  and  private  quarrels.  Duels, 
which  at  first  could  be  appointed  by  the  civil  judge 
alone,  were  fought  without  the  interposition  of  his 
authority,  and  in  cases  to  which  the  laws  did  not  extend. 
The  transaction  between  Charles  and  Francis  strongly 
countenanced  this  practice.  Upon  every  affront  or 
injury  which  seemed  to  touch  his  honour,  a  gentleman 
thought  himself  entitled  to  draw  his  sword,  and  to 

11  Recueil  des  Trails,  2. — M&n.  de  Bellay,  103,  etc. — Sandoval, 
Hist,  i.  837. 


588  EEIGN   OF  THE  [BOOK  v. 

call  on  his  adversary  to  give  him  satisfaction.  Such 
an  opinion  becoming  prevalent  among  men  of  fierce 
courage,  of  high  spirit,  and  of  rude  manners,  when 
offence  was  often  given,  and  revenge  was  always  prompt, 
produced  most  fatal  consequences.  Much  of  the  best 
blood  in  Christendom  was  shed ;  many  useful  lives  were 
sacrificed ;  and,  at  some  periods,  war  itself  hath  hardly 
been  more  destructive  than  these  private  contests  of 
honour.  So  powerful,  however,  is  the  dominion  of 
fashion,  that  neither  the  terror  of  penal  laws,  nor  the 
reverence  for  religion,  have  been  able  entirely  to  abolish 
a  practice  unknown  among  the  ancients,  and  not  justi- 
fiable by  any  principle  of  reason ;  though,  at  the  same 
time,  it  must  be  admitted  that  to  this  absurd  custom  we 
must  ascribe  in  some  degree  the  extraordinary  gentleness 
and  complaisance  of  modern  manners,  and  that  respectful 
attention  of  one  man  to  another,  which  at  present  render 
the  social  intercourses  of  life  far  more  agreeable  and  de- 
cent than  among  the  most  civilized  nations  of  antiquity. 
While  the  two  monarchs  seemed  so  eager  to  terminate 
their  quarrel  by  a  personal  combat,  Lautrec  continued 
his  operations,  which  promised  to  be  more  decisive. 
His  army,  which  was  now  increased  to  thirty-five  thou- 
sand men,  advanced  by  great  marches  towards  Naples. 
The  terror  of  their  approach,  as  well  as  the  remon- 
strances and  the  entreaties  of  the  prince  of  Orange, 
prevailed  at  last  on  the  imperial  troops,  though  with 
difficulty,  to  quit  Eome,  of  which  they  had  kept  pos- 
session during  ten  months.  But  of  that  flourishing 
army  which  had  entered  the  city,  scarcely  one-half 
remained :  the  rest,  cut  off  by  the  plague,  or  wasted  by 
disease,  the  effects  of  their  inactivity,  intemperance, 
and  debauchery,  fell  victims  to  their  own  crimes.12 
Lautrec  made  the  greatest  efiorts  to  attack  them  in 
their  retreat  towards  the  Neapolitan  territories,  which 

12  Guic.,  lib.  xviii.  478. 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEROB  OHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  589 

would  have  finished  the  war  at  one  blow.  But  the 
prudence  of  their  leaders  disappointed  all  his  measures, 
and  conducted  them  with  little  loss  to  Naples.  The 
people  of  that  kingdom,  extremely  impatient  to  shake 
off  the  Spanish  yoke,  received  the  French  with  open 
arms  wherever  they  appeared  to  take  possession ;  and, 
Gaeta  and  Naples  excepted,  hardly  any  place  of  im- 
portance remained  in  the  hands  of  the  imperialists. 
The  preservation  of  the  former  was  owing  to  the 
strength  of  its  fortifications,  that  of  the  latter  to  the 
presence  of  the  imperial  army.  Lautrec,  however,  sat 
down  before  Naples ;  but,  finding  it  vain  to  think  of 
reducing  a  city  by  force  while  defended  by  a  whole 
army,  he  was  obliged  to  employ  the  slower  but  less 
dangerous  method  of  blockade;  and,  having  taken 
measures  which  appeared  to  him  effectual,  he  con- 
fidently assured  his  master  that  famine  would  soon 
compel  the  besieged  to  capitulate.  These  hopes  were 
strongly  confirmed  by  the  defeat  of  a  vigorous  attempt 
made  by  the  enemy  in  order  to  recover  the  command 
of  the  sea.  The  galleys  of  Andrew  Doria,  under  the 
command  of  his  nephew  Philippine,  guarded  the  mouth 
of  the  harbour.  Moncada,  who  had  succeeded  Lannoy 
in  the  viceroyalty,  rigged  out  a  number  of  galleys 
superior  to  Doria' s,  manned  them  with  a  chosen  body  of 
Spanish  veterans,  and,  going  on  board  himself,  together 
with  the  marquis  del  Guasto,  attacked  Philippine  before 
the  arrival  of  the  Venetian  and  French  fleets.  But  the 
Genoese  admiral,  by  his  superior  skill  in  naval  opera- 
tions, easily  triumphed  over  the  valour  and  number  of 
the  Spaniards.  The  viceroy  was  killed,  most  of  his 
fleet  destroyed,  and  Guasto,  with  many  officers  of  dis- 
tinction, being  taken  prisoners,  were  put  on  board  the 
captive  galleys  and  sent  by  Philippine  as  trophies  of  his 
victory  to  his  uncle.13 

13  Guic.,  lib.  xix.  487. — P.  Heuter.,  lib.  x.  c.  2,  p.  231. 


590  BEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  v. 

Notwithstanding  this  flattering  prospect  of  success, 
many  circumstances  concurred  to  frustrate  Lautrec's 
expectations.  Clement,  though  he  always  acknow- 
ledged his  being  indebted  to  Francis  for  the  recovery 
of  his  liberty,  and  often  complained  of  the  cruel  treat- 
ment which  he  had  met  with  from  the  emperor,  was 
not  influenced  at  this  juncture  by  principles  of  gratitude, 
nor,  which  is  more  extraordinary,  was  he  swayed  by 
the  desire  of  revenge.  His  past  misfortunes  rendered 
him  more  cautious  than  ever,  and  his  recollection  of  the 
errors,  which  he  had  committed  increased  the  natural 
irresolution  of  his  mind.  While  he  amused  Francis 
with  promises,  he  secretly  negotiated  with  Charles ; 
and,  being  solicitous  above  all  things  to  re-establish 
his  family  in  Florence  with  their  ancient  authority, 
which  he  could  not  expect  from  Francis,  who  had 
entered  into  strict  alliance  with  the  new  republic,  he 
leaned  rather  to  the  side  of  his  enemy  than  to  that  of 
his  benefactor,  and  gave  Lautrec  no  assistance  towards 
carrying  on  his  operations.  The  Venetians,  viewing 
with  jealousy  the  progress  of  the  French  arms,  were 
intent  only  upon  recovering  such  maritime  towns  in 
the  Neapolitan  dominions  as  were  to  be  possessed  by 
their  republic,  while  they  were  altogether  careless  about 
the  reduction  of  Naples,  on  which  the  success  of  the 
common  cause  depended.14  The  king  of  England, 
instead  of  being  able,  as  had  been  projected,  to  em- 
barrass the  emperor  by  attacking  his  territories  in 
the  Low  Countries,  found  his  subjects  so  averse  to  an 
unnecessary  war,  which  would  have  ruiped  the  trade 
of  the  nation,  that,  in  order  to  silence  their  clamours 
and  put  a  stop  to  the  insurrections  ready  to  break  out 
among  them,  he  was  compelled  to  conclude  a  truce  for 
eight  months  with  the  governess  of  the  Netherlands.16 
Francis  himself,  with  the  same  unpardonable  inatten- 

14  Guic.,  lib.  xix.  491.  "  Herbert,  90. — Kymer,  xiv.  258 


BOOK  v.]        EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  591 

tion  of  which  he  had  formerly  been  guilty  and  for 
which  he  had  suffered  so  severely,  neglected  to  make 
proper  remittances  to  Lautrec  for  the  support  of  his 
army.16 

These  unexpected  events  retarded  the  progress  of  the- 
French,  discouraging  both  the  general  and  his  troops ; 
but  the  revolt  of  Andrew  Doria  proved  a  fatal  blow  to 
all  their  measures.  That  gallant  officer,  the  citizen  of 
a  republic,  and  trained  up  from  his  infancy  in  the  sea- 
service,  retained  the  spirit  of  independence  natural  to 
the  former,  together  with  the  plain,  liberal  manners 
peculiar  to  the  latter.  A  stranger  to  the  arts  of  sub- 
mission or  flattery  necessary  in  courts,  but  conscious, 
at  the  same  time,  of  his  own  merit  and  importance,  he 
always  offered  his  advice  with  freedom,  and  often  pre- 
ferred his  complaints  and  remonstrances  with  boldness. 
The  French  ministers,  unaccustomed  to  such  liberties, 
determined  to  ruin  a  man  who  treated  them  with 
so  little  deference ;  and  though  Francis  himself  had 
a  just  sense  of  Doria's  services,  as  well  as  a  high  esteem 
for  his  character,  the  courtiers,  by  continually  repre- 
senting him  as  a  man  haughty,  intractable,  and  more 
solicitous  to  aggrandise  himself  than  to  promote  the 
interests  of  France,  gradually  undermined  the  founda- 
tions of  his  credit,  and  filled  the  king's  mind  with 
suspicion  and  distrust.  From  thence  proceeded  several 
affronts  and  indignities  put  upon  Doria.  His  appoint- 
ments were  not  regularly  paid;  his  advice,  even  in 
naval  affairs,  was  often  slighted ;  an  attempt  was  made 
to  seize  the  prisoners  taken  by  his  nephew  in  the 
sea-fight  off  Naples  ;  all  which  he  bore  with  abundance 
of  ill-humour.  liut  an  injury  offered  t^>  his  country 
transported  him  beyond  all  bounds  of  patience.  The 
French  began  to  fortify  Savona,  to  clear  its  harbour, 
and,  removing  thither  some  branches  of  trade  carried 

16  Guic.,  lib.  xviii.  478. 


592  fcEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  T. 

on  at  Genoa,  plainly  showed  that  they  intended  to 
render  that  town,  which  had  been  long  the  object  of 
jealousy  and  hatred  to  the  Genoese,  ^heir  rival  in 
wealth  and  commerce.  Doria,  animated  with  a  patriotic 
zeal  for  the  honour  and  interest  of  his  country,  re- 
monstrated against  this  in  the  highest  tone,  not  without 
threats  if  the  measure  were  not  instantly  abandoned. 
This  bold  action,  aggravated  by  the  malice  of  the 
courtiers,  and  placed  in  the  most  odious  light,  irritated 
Francis  to  such  a  degree,  that  he  commanded  Barbe- 
sieux,  whom  he  appointed  admiral  of  the  Levant,  to 
sail  directly  to  Genoa  with  the  French  fleet,  to  arrest 
Doria,  and  to  seize  his  galleys.  This  rash  order, 
the  execution  of  which  could  have  been  secured  only 
by  the  most  profound  secrecy,  was  concealed  with  so 
little  care,  that  Doria  got  timely  intelligence  of  it, 
and  retired  with  all  his  galleys  to  a  place  of  safety. 
Guasto,  his  prisoner,  who  had  long  observed  and 
fomented  his  growing  discontent,  and  had  often  allured 
him  by  magnificent  promises  to  enter  into  the  em- 
peror's service,  laid  hold  on  this  favourable  opportunity. 
While  Jbi.8  indignation  and  resentment  were  at  their 
height,  he  prevailed  on  him  to  despatch  one  of  his 
officers  to  the  imperial  court  with  his  overtures  and 
demands.  The  negotiation  was  not  long :  Charles, 
fully  sensible  of  the  importance  of  such  an  acquisition, 
granted  him  whatever  terms  he  required.  Doria  sent 
back  his  commission,  together  with  the  collar  -of  St. 
Michael,  to  Francis,  and,  hoisting  the  imperial  colours, 
sailed  with  all  his  galleys  towards  Naples,  not  to 
block  up  the  harbour  of  that  unhappy  city,  as  he  had 
formerly  engaged,  but  to  bring  them  protection  and 
deliverance. 

His  arrival  opened  the  communication  with  the  sea, 
and  restored  plenty  in  Naples,  which  was  now  reduced 
to  the  last  extremity  ;  and  the  French,  having  lost  their 


BOOK  V.j  EMPEEOE  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  593 

superiority  at  sea,  were  soon  reduced  to  great  straits 
for  want  of  provisions.  The  prince  of  Orange,  who 
succeeded  the  viceroy  in  the  command  of  the  imperial 
army,  showed  himself  by  his  prudent  conduct  worthy 
of  that  honour  which  his  good  fortune  and  the  death  of 
his  generals  had  twice  acquired  him.  Beloved  by  the 
troops,  who,  remembering  the  prosperity  which  they 
had  enjoyed  under  his  command,  served  him  with  the 
utmost  alacrity,  he  let  slip  no  opportunity  of  harassing 
the  enemy,  and  by  continual  alarms  or  sallies  fatigued 
and  weakened  them.17  As  an  addition  to  all  these  mis- 
fortunes, the  diseases  common  in  that  country  during 
the  sultry  months  began  to  break  out  among  the 
French  troops.  The  prisoners  communicated  to  them 
the  pestilence  which  the  imperial  army  had  brought  to 
Naples  from  Rome,  and  it  raged  with  such  violence 
that  few,  either  officers  or  soldiers,  escaped  the  infec- 
tion. Of  the  whole  army,  not  four  thousand  men, 
a  number  hardly  sufficient  to  defend  the  camp,  were 
capable  of  doing  duty ; 18  and,  being  now  besieged  in 
their  turn,  they  suffered  all  the  miseries  from  which 
the  imperialists  were  delivered.  Lautrec,  after  struggling 
long  with  so  many  disappointments  and  calamities,  which 
preyed  on  his  mind  at  the  same  time  that  the  pestilence 
wasted  his  body,  died,  lamenting  the  negligence  of  his 
sovereign  and  the  infidelity  of  his  allies,  to  which  so 
many  brave  men  had  fallen  victims.19  By  his  death, 
and  the  indisposition  of  the  other  generals,  the  com- 
mand devolved  on  the  marquis  de  Saluces,  an  officer 
altogether  unequal  to  such  a  trust.  He,  with  troops 
no  less  dispirited  than  reduced,  retreated  in  disorder 
to  Aversa ;  which  town  being  invested  by  the  prince 
of  Orange,  Saluces  was  under  the  necessity  of  con- 

17  Jovii  Hist.,  lib.  xxxvi.  p.  31,  18  Bellay,  117,  etc. 

etc. — Sigonii  Vita  Doriae,  p.  1139.  l9  P.  Heuter.,  Eenun  Austr.,  lib. 

— Bellay,  114,  etc.  r.  c.  2,  p.  231. 

VOL.  /-  Q  Q 


594  EETGtf  OF  THE  PBOOV  - 

senting  that  he  himself  should  remain  a  prisoner  of  war, 
that  his  troops  should  lay  down  their  arms  and  colours, 
give  up  their  baggage,  and  march  under  a  guard  to 
the  frontiers  of  France.  By  this  ignominious  capitula- 
tion the  wretched  remains  of  the  French  army  were 
saved ;  and  the  emperor,  by  his  own  perseverance  and 
the  good  conduct  of  his  generals,  acquired  once  more 
the  superiority  in  Italy.20 

The  loss  of  Genoa  followed  immediately  upon  the 
ruin  of  the  army  in  Naples.  To  deliver  his  country 
from  the  dominion  of  foreigners  was  Doria's  highest 
ambition,  and  had  been  his  principal  inducement  to  quit 
the  service  of  France  and  enter  into  that  of  the  emperor. 
A  most  favourable  opportunity  for  executing  this 
honourable  enterprise  now  presented  itself.  The  city 
of  Genoa,  afflicted  by  the  pestilence,  was  almost  deserted 
by  its  inhabitants ;  the  French  garrison,  being  neither 
regularly  paid  nor  recruited,  was  reduced  to  an  incon- 
siderable number ;  Doria's  emissaries  found  that  such  of 
the  citizens  as  remained,  being  weary  alike  of  the 
French  and  imperial  yoke,  the  rigour  of  which  they 
had  alternately  felt,  were  ready  to  welcome  him  as  their 
deliverer  and  to  second  all  his  measures.  Things  wear- 
ing this  promising  aspect,  he  sailed  towards  the  coast 
of  Genoa ;  on  his  approach  the  French  galleys  retired ; 
a  small  body  of  men  which  he  landed  surprised  one  of 
the  gates  of  Genoa  in  the  night-time;  Trivulci,  the 
French  governor,  with  his  feeble  garrison,  shut  himself 
up  in  the  citadel,  and  Doria  took  possession  of  the  town 
without  bloodshed  or  resistance.  Want  of  provisions 
quickly  obliged  Trivulci  to  capitulate ;  the  people,  eager 
to  abolish  such  an  odious  monument  of  their  servitude, 
ran  together  with  a  tumultuous  violence  and  levelled  the 
citadel  with  the  ground. 

It  was  now  in  Doria's  power  to  have  rendered  him- 

*°  Bellay,  117,  etc. — Jovii  Hist,  lib.  xxv.,  xxvi 


BOOK  v.l  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  595 

self  the  sovereign  of  his  country,  which  he  had  so 
happily  delivered  from  oppression.  The  fame  of  his 
former  actions,  the  success  of  his  present  attempt,  the 
attachment  of  his  friends,  the  gratitude  of  his  country- 
men, together  with  the  support  of  the  emperor,  all  con- 
spired to  facilitate  his  attaining  the  supreme  authority 
and  invited  him  to  lay  hold  of  it.  But,  with  a  magna- 
nimity of  which  there  are  few  examples,  he  sacrificed 
all  thoughts  of  aggrandizing  himself  to  the  virtuous 
satisfaction  of  establishing  liberty  in  his  country,  the 
highest  object  at  which  ambition  can  aim.  Having 
assembled  the  whole  body  of  the  people  in  the  court 
before  his  palace,  he  assured  them  that  the  happiness 
of  seeing  them  once  more  in  possession  of  freedom  was 
to  him  a  full  reward  for  all  his  services ;  that,  more 
delighted  with  the  name  of  citizen  than  of  sovereign,  he 
claimed  no  pre-eminence  or  power  above  his  equals,  but 
remitted  entirely  to  them  the  right  of  settling  what  form 
of  government  they  would  now  choose  to  be  established 
among  them.  The  people  listened  to  him  with  tears  of 
admiration  and  of  joy.  Twelve  persons  were  elected  to 
new-model  the  constitution  of  the  republic.  The  influ- 
ence of  Doria's  virtue  and  example  communicated  itself 
to  his  countrymen :  the  factions  which  had  long  torn 
and  ruined  the  state  seemed  to  be  forgotten ;  prudent 
precautions  were  taken  to  prevent  their  reviving ;  and 
the  same  form  of  government  which  hath  subsisted  with 
little  variation  since  that  time  in  Genoa  was  established 
with  universal  applause.  Doria  lived  to  a  great  age, 
beloved,  respected,  and  honoured  by  his  countrymen ; 
and,  adhering  uniformly  to  his  professions  of  moderation, 
without  arrogating  any  thing  unbecoming  a  private 
citizen,  he  preserved  a  great  ascendant  over  the  councils 
of  the  republic,  which  owed  its  being  to  his  generosity. 
The  authority  which  he  possessed  was  more  flattering, 

as  well  as  more   satisfactory,   than  that  derived  from 

Q  Q  2 


59(5  BEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  v. 

sovereignty, — a  dominion  founded  in  love  and  in  grati- 
tude, and  upheld  by  veneration  for  his  virtues,  not  by 
the  dread  of  his  power.  His  memory  is  still  reverenced 
by  the  Genoese  ;  and  he  is  distinguished  in  their  public 
monuments,  and  celebrated  in  the  works  of  their  his- 
torians, by  the  most  honourable  of  all  appellations,  THE 

FATHER  OF  HIS  COUNTRY,  AND  THE  RESTORER  OF  ITS 
LIBERTY.21 

Francis,  in  order  to  recover  the  reputation  of  his 
arms,  discredited  by  so  many  losses,  made  new  efforts 
in  the  Milanese.  But  the  count  of  St.  Pol,  a  rash  and 
unexperienced  officer,  to  whom  he  gave  the  command, 
was  no  match  for  Antonio  de  Leyva,  the  ablest  of  the 
imperial  generals.  He,  by  his  superior  skill  in  war, 
checked,  with  a  handful  of  men,  the  brisk  but  ill- 
concerted  motions  of  the  French ;  and,  though  so  infirm 
himself  that  he  was  carried  constantly  in  a  litter,  he 
surpassed  them,  when  occasion  required,  no  less  in 
activity  than  in  prudence.  By  an  unexpected  march, 
he  surprised,  defeated,  and  took  prisoner  the  count  of 
St.  Pol,  ruining  the  French  army  in  the  Milanese  as 
entirely  as  the  prince  of  Orange  had  ruined  that  which 
besieged  Naples.22 

Amidst  these  vigorous  operations  in  the  field,  each 
party  discovered  an  impatient  desire  of  peace,  and 
continual  negotiations  were  carried  on  for  that  purpose. 
The  French  king,  discouraged  and  almost  exhausted  by 
so  many  unsuccessful  enterprises,  was  reduced  now  to 
think  of  obtaining  the  release  of  his  sons  by  concessions, 
not  by  the  terror  of  his  arms.  The  pope  hoped  to 
recover  by  a  treaty  whatever  he  had  lost  in  the  war. 
The  emperor,  notwithstanding  the  advantages  which  he 
had  gained,  had  many  reasons  to  make  him  wish  for  an 

21  Guic.,  lib.  xix.  498.— Sigonii  22  Guic.,  lib.  xix.  520. — P.  Heu- 
Vita  Dorise,  p.  1146. — Jovii  Hist,  ter.,  Rer.  Austr.,  lib.  x.  c.  3,  p.  233. 
lib.  xxvi.  p.  36,  etc.  — Mom.  de  Bellay,  p.  121. 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  597 

accommodation.  Solyman,  having  overrun  Hungary, 
was  ready  to  break  in  upon  the  Austrian  territories  with 
the  whole  force  of  the  East.  The  Eeformation  gaining 
ground  daily  in  Germany,  the  princes  who  favoured  it 
had  entered  into  a  confederacy  which  Charles  thought 
dangerous  to  the  tranquillity  of  the  empire.  The 
Spaniards  murmured  at  a  war  of  such  unusual  length, 
the  weight  of  which  rested  chiefly  on  them.  The  variety 
mid  extent  of  the  emperor's  operations  far  exceeded 
what  his  revenues  could  support :  his  success  hitherto 
had  been  owing  chiefly  to  his  own  good  fortune  and  to 
the  abilities  of  his  generals  ;  nor  could  he  flatter  himself 
that  they,  with  troops  destitute  of  every  thing  necessary, 
would  always  triumph  over  enemies  still  in  a  condition 
to  renew  their  attacks.  All  parties,  however,  were  at 
equal  pains  to  conceal  or  to  dissemble  their  real  senti- 
ments. The  emperor,  that  his  inability  to  carry  on  the 
war  might  not  be  suspected,  insisted  on  high  terms  in 
the  tone  of  a  conqueror.  The  pope,  solicitous  not  to 
lose  his  present  allies  before  he  came  to  any  agreement 
with  Charles,  continued  to  make  a  thousand  protesta- 
tions of  fidelity  to  the  former,  while  he  privately 
negotiated  with  the  latter.  Francis,  afraid  that  his 
confederates  might  prevent  him  by  treating  for  them- 
selves with  the  emperor,  had  recourse  to  many  dis- 
honourable artifices  in  order  to  turn  their  attention  from 
the  measures  which  he  was  taking  to  adjust  all  differ- 
ences with  his  rival. 

In  this  situation  of  affairs,  when  all  the  contending 
powers  wished  for  peace  but  durst  not  venture  too 
hastily  on  the  steps  necessary  for  attaining  it,  two  ladies 
undertook  to  procure  this  blessing  so  much  desired  by 
all  Europe.  These  were  Margaret  of  Austria,  duchess 
dowager  of  Savoy,  the  emperor's  aunt,  and  Louise, 
Francis's  mother.  They  agreed  on  an  interview  at 
Cambray,  and,  being  lodged  in  two  adjoining  houses, 


598  REIGN  OP  THE  [BOOK  v. 

between  which  a  communication  was  opened,  met 
together  without  ceremony  or  observation,  and  held 
daily  conferences,  to  which  no  person  whatever  was 
admitted.  As  both  were  profoundly  skilled  in  business, 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  secrets  of  their  respec- 
tive courts,  and  possessed  with  perfect  confidence  in 
each  other,  they  soon  made  great  progress  towards  a 
final  accommodation;  and  the  ambassadors  of  all  the 
confederates  waited  in  anxious  suspense  to  know  their 
fate,  the  determination  of  which  was  entirely  in  the 
hands  of  those  illustrious  negotiators.23 

But,  whatever  diligence  they  used  to  hasten  forward 
a  general  peace,  the  pope  had  the  address  and  industry 
to  get  the  start  of  his  allies,  by  concluding  at  Barcelona 
a  particular  treaty  for  himself.  The  emperor,  impatient 
to  visit  Italy  in  his  way  to  Germany,  and  desirous  of 
re-establishing  tranquillity  in  the  one  country  before 
he  attempted  to  compose  the  disorders  which  abounded 
in  the  other,  found  it  necessary  to  secure  at  least  one 
alliance  among  the  Italian  states  on  which  he  might 
depend.  That  with  Clement,  who  courted  it  with  un- 
wearied importunity,  seemed  more  proper  than  any 
other.  Charles,  being  extremely  solicitous  to  make 
some  reparation  for  the  insults  which  he  had  offered  to 
the  sacred  character  of  the  pope,  and  to  redeem  past 
offences  by  new  merit,  granted  Clement,  notwithstand- 
ing all  his  misfortunes,  terms  more  favourable  than  he 
could  have  expected  after  a  continued  series  of  suc- 
cesses. Among  other  articles,  he  engaged  to  restore  all 
the  territories  belonging  to  the  ecclesiastical  state,  to 
re-establish  the  dominion  of  the  Medici  in  Florence, 
to  give  his  natural  daughter  in  marriage  to  Alexander, 
the  head  of  that  family,  and  to  put  it  in  the  pope's 
power  to  decide  concerning  the  fate  of  Sforza  and  the 

P.  Heater.,  Rer.   Austr.,  lib.  x.   c.   3,  p.    133. — Mifco.  de  Bollay,  p. 


23 

J22, 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEROE  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  599 

possession  of  the  Milanese.  In  return  for  these  ample 
concessions,  Clement  gave  the  emperor  the  investiture 
of  Naples  without  the  reserve  of  any  tribute  but  the 
present  of  a  white  steed  in  acknowledgment  of  his 
sovereignty,  absolved  all  who  had  been  concerned  in 
assaulting  and  plundering  Rome,  and  permitted  Charles 
and  his  brother  Ferdinand  to  levy  the  fourth  of  the 
ecclesiastical  revenues  throughout  their  dominions.24 

The  account  of  this  transaction  quickened  the  nego- 
tiations at  Cambray,  and  brought  Margaret  and  Louise 
to  an  immediate  agreement.  The  treaty  of  Madrid 
served  as  the  basis  of  that  which  they  concluded ;  the 
latter  being  intended  to  mitigate  the  rigour  of  the 
former.  The  chief  articles  were,  that  the  emperor 
should  not  for  the  present  demand  the  restitution  of 
Burgundy,  reserving,  however,  in  full  force  his  rights 
and  pretensions  to  that  duchy ;  that  Francis  should  pay 
two  millions  of  crowns  as  the  ransom  of  his  sons,  and, 
before  they  were  set  at  liberty,  should  restore  such 
towns  as  he  still  held  in  the  Milanese ;  that  he  should 
resign  his  pretensions  to  the  sovereignty  of  Flanders 
and  of  Artois  ;  that  he  should  renounce  all  his  preten- 
sions to  Naples,  Milan,  Genoa,  and  every  other  place 
beyond  the  Alps ;  that  he  should  immediately  consum- 
mate the  marriage  concluded  between  him  and  the 
emperor's  sister  Eleanora.25 

Thus  Francis,  chiefly  from  his  impatience  to  procure 
liberty  to  his  sons,  sacrificed  every  thing  which  had  at 
first  prompted  him  to  take  arms,  or  which  had  induced 
him,  by  continuing  hostilities  during  nine  successive 
campaigns,  to  protract  the  war  to  a  length  hardly  known 
in  Europe  before  the  establishment  of  standing  armies 
and  the  imposition  of  exorbitant  taxes  became  universal. 
The  emperor,  by  this  treaty,  was  rendered  sole  arbiter 

24  Guic.,  lib.  xix.  522.  c.  3,  p.  234. — Sandoval,  Hist  del 

84  P   Heuter.,  Rer.  Austr.,  lib.  x.      Emper.  Car.  V.,  ii.  28. 


600  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  v. 

of  the  fate  of  Italy ;  lie  delivered  his  territories  in  the 
Netherlands  from  an  unpleasant  badge  of  subjection ; 
and,  after  having  baffled  his  rival  in  the  field,  he  pre- 
scribed to  him  the  conditions  of  peace.  The  different 
conduct  and  spirit  with  -which  the  two  monarchs  carried 
on  the  operations  of  war  led  naturally  to  such  an  issue 
of  it.  Charles,  inclined  by  temper  as  well  as  obliged 
by  his  situation,  concerted  all  his  schemes  with  caution, 
pursued  them  with  perseverance,  and,  observing  circum- 
stances and  events  with  attention,  let  none  escape  that 
could  be  improved  to  advantage.  Francis,  more  enter- 
prising than  steady,  undertook  great  designs  with 
warmth,  but  often  executed  them  with  remissness,  and, 
diverted  by  his  pleasures  or  deceived  by  his  favourites, 
he  lost  on  several  occasions  the  most  promising  oppor- 
tunities of  success.  Nor  had  the  character  of  the  two 
rivals  themselves  greater  influence  on  the  operations  of 
war  than  the  opposite  qualities  of  the  generals  whom 
they  employed.  Among  the  imperialists,  valour  tem- 
pered with  prudence,  fertility  of  invention,  aided  by 
experience,  discernment  to  penetrate  the  designs  of 
their  enemies,  a  provident  sagacity  in  conducting  their 
own  measures, — in  a  word,  all  the  talents  which  form 
great  commanders  and  insure  victory, — were  conspicu- 
ous. Among  the  French  these  qualities  were  either 
wanting,  or  the  very  reverse  of  them  abounded;  nor 
could  they  boast  of  one  man  (unless  we  except  Lautrec, 
who  was  always  unfortunate)  that  equalled  the  merit  of 
Pescara,  Leyva,  Guasto,  the  prince  of  Orange,  and  other 
leaders,  whom  Charles  had  set  in  opposition  to  them. 
Bourbon,  Morone,  Doria,  who  by  their  abilities  and  con- 
duct might  have  been  capable  of  balancing  the  supe- 
riority which  the  imperialists  had  acquired,  were  induced 
to  abandon  the  service  of  France,  by  the  carelessness  of 
the  king  and  the  malice  or  injustice  of  his  counsellors; 
and  the  most  fatal  blows  given  to  France  during  the 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEROR  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  G01 

progress  of  the  war  proceeded  from  the  despair  and 
resentment  of  these  three  persons. 

The  hard  conditions  to  which  Francis  was  obliged 
to  submit  were  not  the  most  afflicting  circumstances  to 
him  in  the  treaty  of  Cambray.  He  lost  his  reputation, 
and  the  confidence  of  all  Europe,  by  abandoning  his 
allies  to  his  rival.  Unwilling  to  enter  into  the  details 
necessary  for  adjusting  their  interests,  or  afraid  that 
whatever  he  claimed  for  them  must  have  been  pur- 
chased by  farther  concessions  on  his  own  part,  he  gave 
them  up  in  a  body,  and,  without  the  least  provision  in 
their  behalf,  left  the  Venetians,  the  Florentines,  the 
duke  of  Ferrara,  together  with  such  of  the  Neapolitan 
barons  as  had  joined  his  army,  to  the  mercy  of  the 
emperor.  They  exclaimed  loudly  against  this  base  and 
perfidious  action,  of  which  Francis  himself  was  so  much 
ashamed  that,  in  order  to  avoid  the  pain  of  hearing 
from  their  ambassadors  the  reproaches  which  he  justly 
merited,  it  was  some  time  before  he  would  consent  to 
allow  them  an  audience.  Charles,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  attentive  to  the  interest  of  every  person  who  had 
adhered  to  him :  the  rights  of  some  of  his  Flemish 
subjects  who  had  estates  or  pretensions  in  France  were 
secured ;  one  article  was  inserted,  obliging  Francis  to 
restore  the  blood  and  memory  of  the  Constable  Bourbon, 
and  to  grant  his  heirs  the  possession  of  his  lauds  which 
had  been  forfeited ;  another,  by  which  the  indemnifica- 
tion was  stipulated  for  those  French  gentlemen  who 
had  accompanied  Bourbon  in  his  exile.26  This  conduct, 
laudable  in  itself,  and  placed  in  the  most  striking  light 
by  a  comparison  with  that  of  Francis,  gained  Charles 
as  much  esteem  as  the  success  of  his  arms  had  acquired 
him  glory. 

Francis  did  not  treat  the  king  of  England  with  the 
same  neglect  as  his  other  allies.  He  communicated  to 

26  Guic..  lib.  xix.  p.  525. — P.  Heuter.,  Ber.  Austr.,  lib.  x.  c.  4,  p.  236. 


602  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  T. 

him  all  the  steps  of  his  negotiation  at  Cambray,  and 
luckily  found  that  monarch  in  a  situation  which  left 
him  no  choice  but  to  approve  implicitly  of  his  measures, 
and  to  concur  with  them.  Henry  had  been  soliciting 
the  pope  for  some  time  in  order  to  obtain  a  divorce 
from  Catharine  of  Aragon,  his  queen.  Several  motives 
combined  in  prompting  the  king  to  urge  his  suit.  As 
he  was  powerfully  influenced  at  some  seasons  by  religious 
considerations,  he  entertained  many  scruples  concerning 
the  legitimacy  of  his  marriage  with  his  brother's  widow ; 
his  affections  had  long  been  estranged  from  the  queen, 
who  was  older  than  himself,  and  had  lost  all  the  charms 
which  she  possessed  in  the  earlier  part  of  her  life ;  he 
was  passionately  desirous  of  having  male  issue  ;  Wolsey 
artfully  fortified  his  scruples,  and  encouraged  his  hopes, 
that  he  might  widen  the  breach  between  him  and  the 
emperor,  Catharine's  nephew ;  and,  what  was  more 
forcible,  perhaps,  in  its  operation  than  all  these  united, 
the  king  had  conceived  a  violent  love  for  the  celebrated 
Anne  Boleyn,  a  young  lady  of  great  beauty,  and  of 
greater  accomplishments,  whom,  as  he  found  it  im- 
possible to  gain  her  on  other  terms,  he  determined  to 
raise  to  the  throne.  The  papal  authority  had  often  been 
interposed  to  grant  divorces  for  reasons  less  specious 
than  those  which  Henry  produced.  When  the  matter 
was  first  proposed  to  Clement,  during  his  imprisonment 
in  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo,  as  his  hopes  of  recovering 
liberty  depended  -entirely  on  the  king  of  England  and 
his  ally  of  France,  he  expressed  the  warmest  inclination 
to  gratify  him.  But  no  sooner  was  he  set  free  than 
he  discovered  other  sentiments.  Charles,  who  espoused 
the  protection  of  his  aunt  with  zeal  inflamed  by  resent- 
ment, alarmed  the  pope,  on  the  one  hand,  with  threats 
which  made  a  deep  impression  on  his  timid  mind,  and 
allured  him,  on  the  other,  with  those  promises  in  favour 
of  his  family  which  he  afterwards  accomplished.  Upon 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  603 

the  prospect  of  these,  Clement  not  only  forgot  all  his 
obligations  to  Henry,  but  ventured  to  endanger  the 
interests  of  the  Romish  religion  in  England,  and  to  run 
the  risk  of  alienating  that  kingdom  for  ever  from  the 
obedience  of  the  papal  see.  After  amusing  Henry 
during  two  years  with  all  the  subtleties  and  chicane 
which  the  court  of  Eome  can  so  dexterously  employ  to 
protract  or  defeat  any  cause, — after  displaying  the  whole 
extent  of  his  ambiguous  and  deceitful  policy,  the  intri- 
cacies of  which  the  English  historians,  to  whom  it 
properly  belongs,  have  found  it  no  easy  matter  to  trace 
and  unravel, — he  at  last  recalled  the  powers  of  the 
delegates  whom  he  had  appointed  to  judge  in  the  point, 
avocated  the  cause  to  Eome,  leaving  the  king  no  other 
hope  of  obtaining  a  divorce  but  from  the  personal 
decision  of  the  pope  himself.  As  Clement  was  now  in 
strict  alliance  with  the  emperor,  who  had  purchased  his 
friendship  by  the  exorbitant  concessions  which  have 
been  mentioned,  Henry  despaired  of  procuring  any 
sentence  from  the  former  but  what  was  dictated  by  the 
latter.  His  honour,  however,  and  passions  concurred  in 
preventing  him  from  relinquishing  his  scheme  of  a 
divorce,  which  he  determined  to  accomplish  by  other 
means,  and  at  any  rate ;  and  the  continuance  of 
Francis's  friendship  being  necessary  to  counterbalance 
the  emperor's  power,  he,  in  order  to  secure  that,  not 
only  offered  no  remonstrances  against  the  total  neglect 
of  their  allies  in  the  treaty  of  Cambray,  but  made 
Francis  the  present  of  a  large  sum  as  a  brotherly 
contribution  towards  the  payment  of  the  ransom  for 
his  sons.27 

Soon  after  the  treaty  of  peace  was  concluded,  the 
emperor  landed  in  Italy  with  a  numerous  train  of  the 
Spanish  nobility  and  a  considerable  body  of  troops. 
He  left  the  government  of  Spain,  during  his  absence, 

*7  Herbert,  M&n.  de  Bellay,  122. 


604  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  v, 

to  the  empress  Isabella.  By  his  long  residence  in  that 
country  he  had  acquired  such  thorough  knowledge  of 
the  character  of  the  people  that  he  could  perfectly 
accommodate  the  maxims  of  his  government  to  their 
genius.  He  could  even  assume,  upon  some  occasions, 
such  popular  manners  as  gained  wonderfully  upon  the 
Spaniards.  A  striking  instance  of  his  disposition  to 
gratify  them  had  occurred  a  few  days  before  he  em- 
barked for  Italy.  He  was  to  make  his  public  entry  into 
the  city  of  Barcelona ;  and  some  doubts  having  arisen 
among  the  inhabitants  whether  they  should  receive  him 
as  emperor  or  as  count  of  Barcelona,  Charles  instantly 
decided  in  favour  of  the  latter,  declaring  that  he  was 
more  proud  of  that  ancient  title  than  of  his  imperial 
crown.  Soothed  with  this  flattering  expression  of  his 
regard,  the  citizens  welcomed  him  with  acclamations  of 
joy;  and  the  states  of  the  province  swore  allegiance  to 
his  son  Philip,  as  heir  of  the  county  of  Barcelona.  A 
similar  oath  had  been  taken  in  all  the  kingdoms  of 
Spain,  with  equal  satisfaction.28 

The  emperor  appeared  in  Italy  with  the  pomp  and 
power  of  a  conqueror.  Ambassadors  from  all  the  princes 
and  states  of  that  country  attended  his  court,  waiting 
to  receive  his  decision  with  regard  to-  their  fate.  At 
Genoa,  where  he  first  landed,  he  was  received  with  the 
acclamations  due  to  the  protector  of  their  liberties. 
Having  honoured  Doria  with  many  marks  of  dis- 
tinction, and  bestowed  on  the  republic  several  new 
privileges,  he  proceeded  to  Bologna,  the  place  fixed  upon 
for  his  interview  with  the  pope.  He  affected  to  unite 
in  his  public  entry  into  that  city  the  state  and  majesty 
that  suited  an  emperor  with  the  humility  becoming  an 
obedient  son  of  the  Church ;  and  while  at  the  head  of 
twenty  thousand  veteran  soldiers,  able  to  give  law  to 
all  Italy,  he  kneeled  down  to  kiss  the  feet  of  that  very 

*8  Sandoval,  ii.  p.  f>0. — Ferreras,  ix.  116. 


BOOK  vl  EMPEROB  CHABLES  THE  FIFTH.  605 

pope  whom  he  had  so  lately  detained  a  prisoner.  The 
Italians,  after  suffering  so  much  from  the  ferocity  and 
licentiousness  of  his  armies,  and  after  having  been  long 
accustomed  to  form  in  their  imagination  a  picture  of 
Charles  which  bore  some  resemblance  to  that  of  the 
barbarous  monarchs  of  the  Goths  or  Huns,  who  had 
formerly  afflicted  their  country  with  like  calamities,  were 
surprised  to  see  a  prince  of  a  graceful  appearance,  affable 
and  courteous  in  his  deportment,  of  regular  manners,  and 
of  exemplary  attention  to  all  the  offices  of  religion.29 
They  were  still  more  astonished  when  he  settled  all  the 
concerns  of  the  princes  and  states  which  now  depended 
on  him  with  a  degree  of  moderation  and  equity  much 
beyond  what  they  had  expected. 

Charles  himself,  when  he  set  out  from  Spain,  far 
from  intending  to  give  any  such  extraordinary  proof 
of  his  self-denial,  seems  to  have  been  resolved  to  avail 
himself  to  the  utmost  of  the  superiority  which  he  had 
acquired  in  Italy.  But  various  circumstances  concurred 
in  pointing  out  the  necessity  of  pursuing  a  very  different 
course.  The  progress  of  the  Turkish  sultan,  who,  after 
overrunning  Hungary,  had  penetrated  into  Austria  and 
laid  siege  to  Vienna  with  an  army  of  a  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  men,  loudly  called  upon  him  to  collect 
his  whole  force  to  oppose  that  torrent ;  and  though  the 
valour  of  the  Germans,  the  prudent  conduct  of  Ferdinand, 
together  with  the  treachery  of  the  vizier,  soon  obliged 
Solyman  to  abandon  that  enterprise  with  disgrace  and 
loss,  the  religious  disorders  still  growing  in  Germany 
rendered  the  presence  of  the  emperor  highly  necessary 
there.30  The  Florentines,  instead  of  giving  their  consent 
to  the  re-establishment  of  the  Medici,  which  by  the 
treaty  of  Barcelona  the  emperor  had  bound  himself  to 
procure,  were  preparing  to  defend  their  liberty  by  force 

38  Sandoval,  Hist,  del  Emp.  CarL  *°  Sleidan.,  121. — Guic.,  lib.  JOE. 

V.,  ii.  50,  53,  etc.  660. 


(506  KEIGKN   OF  THH  [BOOK  v. 

of  arms  ;  the  preparations  for  his  journey  had  involved 
him  in  unusual  expenses  ;  and  on  this,  as  well  as  many 
other  occasions,  the  multiplicity  of  his  affairs,  together 
with  the  narrowness  of  his  revenues,  obliged  him  to 
contract  the  schemes  which  his  boundless  ambition  was 
apt  to  form,  and  to  forego  present  and  certain  advan- 
tages that  he  might  guard  against  more  remote  but 
unavoidable  dangers.  Charles,  from  all  these  considera- 
tions, finding  it  necessary  to  assume  an  air  of  moderation, 
acted  his  part  with  a  good  grace.  He  admitted  Sforza 
into  his  presence,  and  not  only  gave  him  a  full  pardon 
of  all  past  offences,  but  granted  him  the  investiture  of 
the  duchy,  together  with  his  niece,  the  king  of  Den- 
mark's daughter,  in  marriage.  He  allowed  the  duke  of 
Ferrara  to  keep  possession  of  all  his  dominions,  adjusting 
the  points  in  dispute  between  him  and  the  pope  with  an 
impartiality  not  very  agreeable  to  the  latter.  He  came 
to  a  final  accommodation  with  the  Venetians,  upon  the 
reasonable  condition  of  their  restoring  whatever  they 
had  usurped  during  the  late  war,  either  in  the  Nea- 
politan or  papal  territories.  In  return  for  so  many 
concessions,  he  exacted  considerable  sums  from  each  of 
the  powers  with  whom  he  treated,  which  they  paid 
without  reluctance,  and  which  afforded  him  the  means  of 
proceeding  on  his  journey  towards  Germany  with  a 
magnificence  suitable  to  his  dignity.31 

These  treaties,  which  restored  tranquillity  to  Italy 
after  a  tedious  war,  the  calamities  of  which  had  chiefly 
affected  that  country,  were  published  at  Bologna  with 
great  solemnity  on  the  first  day  of  the  year  1530,  amidst 
the  universal  acclamations  of  the  people ;  applauding 
the  emperor,  to  whose  moderation  and  generosity  they 
ascribed  the  blessings  of  peace  which  they  had  so  long 
desired.  The  Florentines  alone  did  not  partake  of  this 
general  joy.  Animated  with  a  zeal  for  liberty  more 

31  SandoVal,  ii.  55,  etc. 


HOOK  v.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  607 

laudable  than  prudent,  they  determined  to  oppose  the 
restoration  of  the  Medici.  The  imperial  army  had 
already  entered  their  territories  and  formed  the  siege  of 
their  capital.  But  though  deserted  by  all  their  allies, 
and  left  without  any  hope  of  succour,  they  defended 
themselves  many  months  with  an  obstinate  valour  worthy 
of  better  success  ;  and  even  when  they  surrendered  they 
obtained  a  capitulation  which  gave  them  hopes  of 
securing  some  remains  of  their  liberty.  But  the  em- 
peror, from  his  desire  to  gratify  the  pope,  frustrated  all 
their  expectations,  and,  abolishing  their  ancient  form  of 
government,  raised  Alexander  de'  Medici  to  the  same 
absolute  dominion  over  that  state  which  his  family  have 
retained  to  the  present  times.  Philibert  de  Chalons, 
prince  of  Orange,  the  imperial  general,  was  killed  during 
this  siege.  His  estate  and  titles  descended  to  his  sister, 
Claude  de  Chalons,  who  was  married  to  Rene',  count  of 
Nassau;  and  she  transmitted  to  her  posterity  of  the 
house  of  Nassau  the  title  of  princes  of  Orange,  which 
by  their  superior  talents  and  valour  they  have  rendered 
so  illustrious.32 

After  the  publication  of  the  peace  at  Bologna,  and 
the  ceremony  of  his  coronation  as  king  of  Lombardy 
and  emperor  of  the  Romans,  which  the  pope  performed 
with  the  accustomed  formalities,  nothing  detained 
Charles  in  Italy ; M  and  he  began  to  prepare  for  his 
journey  to  Germany.  His  presence  became  every  day 
more  necessary  in  that  country,  and  was  solicited  with 
equal  importunity  by  the  Catholics  and  by  the  favourers 
of  the  new  doctrines.  During  that  long  interval  of 
tranquillity  which  the  absence  of  the  emperor,  the  con- 
tests between  him  and  the  pope,  and  his  attention  to  the 
war  with  France  afforded  them,  the  latter  gained  much 

32  Guic.,  lib.  xx.,  p.  341,  etc. —  33  H.  Cornel.  Agrippa  de  duplici 

P.  Heuter.,  Rer.  Austr.,  lib.  ii.  c.  4,  coronatione  Car.  V.,  ap.  Scard.,  ii. 
p.  236.  226. 


608  EEIQN  OP  THE  [BOOK  V. 

ground.  Most  of  the  princes  who  had  embraced  Luther's 
opinions  had  not  only  established  in  their  territories  that 
form  of  worship  which  he  approved,  but  had  entirely 
suppressed  the  rites  of  the  Eomish  Church.  Many  of 
the  free  cities  had  imitated  their  conduct.  Almost  one- 
half  of  the  Germanic  body  had  revolted  from  the  papal 
see;  and  its  authority,  even  in  those  provinces  which 
had  not  hitherto  shaken  off  the  yoke,  was  considerably 
weakened,  partly  by  the  example  of  revolt  in  the  neigh- 
bouring states,  partly  by  the  secret  progress  of  the 
Keformed  doctrine,  even  in  those  countries  where  it 
was  not  openly  embraced.  Whatever  satisfaction  the 
emperor,  while  he  was  at  open  enmity  with  the  see  of 
Borne,  might  have  felt  in  those  events  which  tended  to 
mortify  and  embarrass  the  pope,  he  could  not  help 
perceiving  now  that  the  religious  divisions  in  Germany 
would,  in  the  end,  prove  extremely  hurtful  to  the 
imperial  authority.  The  weakness  of  former  emperors 
had  suffered  the  great  vassals  oi  the  empire  to  make 
such  successful  encroachments  upon  their  power  and 
prerogative  that  during  the  whole  course  of  the  war, 
which  had  often  required  the  exertion  of  his  utmost 
strength,  Charles  hardly  drew  any  effectual  aid  from 
Germany,  and  found  that  magnificent  titles  or  obsolete 
pretensions  were  almost  the  only  advantages  which  he 
had  gained  by  swaying  the  imperial  sceptre.  He  became 
fully  sensible  that  if  he  did  not  recover  in  some  degree 
the  prerogatives  which  his  predecessors  had  lost,  and 
acquire  the  authority  as  well  as  possess  the  name  of 
head  of  the  empire,  his  high  dignity  would  contribute 
more  to  obstruct  than  to  promote  his  ambitious  schemes. 
Nothing,  he  saw,  was  more  essential  towards  attaining 
this  than  to  suppress  opinions  which  might  form  new 
bonds  of  confederacy  among  the  princes  of  the  empire 
and  unite  them  by  ties  stronger  and  more  sacred  than 
any  political  connection.  Nothing  seemed  to  lead  more 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEEOE  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  609 

certainly  to  the  accomplishment  of  his  design  than  to 
employ  zeal  for  the  established  religion,  of  which  he 
was  the  natural  protector,  as  the  instrument  of  extending 
his  civil  authority. 

Accordingly,  a  prospect  no  sooner  opened  of  coming 
to  an  accommodation  with  the  pope  than,  by  the  em- 
peror's appointment,  a  diet  of  the  empire  was  held  at 
Spires,  in  order  to  take  into  consideration  the  state  of 
religion.  The  decree  of  the  diet  assembled  there  in  the 
year  1526,  which  was  almost  equivalent  to  a  toleration 
of  Luther's  opinions,  had  given  great  offence  to  the  rest 
of  Christendom.  The  greatest  delicacy  of  address,  how- 
ever, was  requisite  in  proceeding  to  any  decision  more 
rigorous.  The  minds  of  men,  kept  in  perpetual  agitation 
by  a  controversy  carried  on  during  twelve  years  without 
intermission  of  debate  or  abatement  of  zeal,  were  now 
inflamed  to  a  high  degree.  They  were  accustomed  to 
innovations,  and  saw  the  boldest  of  them  successful. 
Having  not  only  abolished  old  rites,  but  substituted 
new  forms  in  their  place,  they  were  influenced  as  much 
by  attachment  to  the  system  which  they  had  embraced 
as  by  aversion  to  that  which  they  had  abandoned. 
Luther  himself,  of  a  spirit  not  to  be  worn  out  by  the 
length  and  obstinacy  of  the  combat  or  to  become  remiss 
upon  success,  continued  the  attack  with  as  much  vigour 
as  he  had  begun  it.  His  disciples,  of  whom  many 
equalled  him  in  zeal  and  some  surpassed  him  in  learning, 
were  no  less  capable  than  their  master  to  conduct  the 
controversy  in  the  properest  manner.  Many  of  the 
laity,  some  even  of  the  princes,  trained  up  amidst  these 
incessant  disputations,  and  in  the  habit  of  listening  to 
the  arguments  of  the  contending  parties,  who  alternately 
appealed  to  them  as  judges,  came  to  be  profoundly 
skilled  in  all  the  questions  which  were  agitated,  and, 
upon  occasion,  could  show  themselves  not  inexpert  in 
any  of  the  arts  with  which  these  theological  encounters 

VOL.    I.  K    K 


610  REIGN  OP  THE  [BOOK.  r. 

were  managed.  It  was  obvious  from  all  these  circum- 
stances that  any  violent  decision  of  the  diet  must  have 
immediately  precipitated  matters  into  confusion  and  have 
kindled  in  Germany  the  flames  of  a  religious  war.  All, 
therefore,  that  the  archduke,  and  the  other  commis- 
sioners appointed  by  the  emperor,  demanded  of  the  diet, 
was  to  enjoin  those  states  of  the  empire  which  had 
hitherto  obeyed  the  decree  issued  against  Luther  at 
Worms,  in  the  year  1524,  to  persevere  in  the  observa- 
tion of  it,  and  to  prohibit  the  other  states  from  attempt- 
ing any  further  innovation  in  religion,  particularly  from 
abolishing  the  mass,  before  the  meeting  of  a  general 
council.  After  much  dispute,  a  decree  to  that  effect  was 
approved  of  by  a  majority  of  voices.34  £1529.] 

The  elector  of  Saxony,  the  marquis  of  Brandenburg, 
the  landgrave  of  Hesse,  the  dukes  of  Lunenburg,  the 
prince  of  Anhalt,  together  with  the  deputies  of  fourteen 
imperial  or  free  cities,35  entered  a  solemn  protest  against 
this  decree,  as  unjust  and  impious.  On  that  account 
they  were  distinguished  by  the  name  of  PROTESTANTS,*® 
an  appellation  which  hath  since  become  better  known 
and  more  honourable  by  its  being  applied  indiscrimi- 
nately to  all  the  sects,  of  whatever  denomination,  which 
have  revolted  from  the  Eoman  see.  Not  satisfied  with 
this  declaration  of  their  dissent  from  the  decree  of  the 
diet,  the  Protestants  sent  ambassadors  into  Italy  to  lay 
their  grievances  before  the  emperor;  from  whom  they 
met  with  the  most  discouraging  reception.  Charles 
was  at  that  time  in  close  union  with  the  pope,  and 
solicitous  to  attach  him  inviolably  to  his  interests. 
During  their  long  residence  at  Bologna  they  held  many 
consultations  concerning  the  most  effectual  means  of 

84  Sleid.,  Hist.,  117.  Weissemburg,  Nordlingen,  and  St. 

is  The  fourteen  cities  were  Stras-  Gall. 

burg,  Nuremberg,  Ulm,  Constance,  36  Sleid.,   Hist.,   119.— F.   Paul, 

Eeutlingen,  Windsheim,  Meiningen,  Hist,  p.  46.  — Seckend.,  ii.  127. 
Liudau,  Kenvpten,  Heilbronn.  Isna, 


BOOK  v.J  EMPEEOE  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  611 

extirpating  the  heresies  which  had  sprung  up  in  Ger- 
many. Clement,  whose  cautious  and  timid  mind  the 
proposal  of  a  general  council  filled  with  horror  even 
beyond  what  popes,  the  constant  enemies  of  such  assem- 
blies, usually  feel,  employed  every  argument  to  dissuade 
the  emperor  from  consenting  to  that  measure.  He 
represented  general  councils  as  factious,  ungovernable, 
presumptous,  formidable  to  civil  authority,  and  too  slow 
in  their  operations  to  remedy  disorders  which  required 
an  immediate  cure.  Experience,  he  said,  had  now 
taught  both  the  emperor  and  himself  that  forbearance 
and  lenity,  instead  of  soothing  the  spirit  of  innovation, 
had  rendered  it  more  enterprising  and  presumptuous : 
it  was  necessary,  therefore,  to  have  recourse  to  the 
rigorous  methods  which  such  a  desperate  case  required ; 
Leo's  sentence  of  excommunication,  together  with  the 
decree  of  the  diet  at  Worms,  should  be  carried  into 
execution ;  and  it  was  incumbent  on  the  emperor  to 
employ  his  whole  power  in  order  to  overawe  those  on 
whom  the  reverence  due  either  to  ecclesiastical  or  civil 
authority  had  no  longer  any  influence.  Charles,  whose 
views  were  very  different  from  the  pope's,  and  who 
became  daily  more  sensible  how  obstinate  and  deep- 
rooted  the  evil  was,  thought  of  reconciling  the  Protest- 
ants by  means  less  violent,  and  considered  the  convocation 
of  a  council  as  no  improper  expedient  for  that  purpose, 
but  promised,  if  gentler  arts  failed  of  success,  that  then 
he  would  exert  himself  with  rigour  to  reduce  to  the 
obedience  of  the  holy  see  those  stubborn  enemies  of  the 
Catholic  faith.87 

Such  were  the  sentiments  with  which  the  emperor  set 
out  for  Germany,  having  already  appointed  a  diet  of 
the  empire  to  be  held  at  Augsburg.  In  his  journey 


17  F.  Paul,  xlviL — Seek,  lib.  ii.      burg,  par.  D.  Cliytraeus,  4to,  Antw. 
142.— Hist  de  la  Confess.  d'Augs-       1672,  p.  6. 


612  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  v. 

towards  that  city  lie  had  many  opportunities  of  observing 
the  disposition  of  the  Germans  with  regard  to  the 
points  in  controversy,  and  found  their  minds  every- 
where so  much  irritated  and  inflamed  as  convinced  him 
that  nothing  tending  to  severity  or  rigour  ought  to  be 
attempted  until  all  other  measures  proved  ineffectual. 
He  made  his  public  entry  into  Augsburg  with  extra- 
ordinary pomp,  and  found  there  such  a  full  assembly  of 
the  members  of  the  diet  as  was  suitable  both  to  the 
importance  of  the  affairs  which  were  to  come  under 
their  consideration,  and  to  the  honour  of  an  emperor 
who,  after  a  long  absence,  returned  to  them  crowned 
with  reputation  and  success.  His  presence  seems  to 
have  communicated  to  all  parties  an  unusual  spirit  of 
moderation  and  desire  of  peace.  The  elector  of  Saxony 
would  not  permit  Luther  to  accompany  him  to  the 
diet,  lest  he  should  offend  the  emperor  by  bringing 
into  his  presence  a  person  excommunicated  by  the 
pope,  and  who  had  been  the  author  of  all  those  dissen- 
sions which  it  now  appeared  so  difficult  to  compose. 
At  the  emperor's  desire,  all  the  Protestant  princes  for- 
bade the  divines  who  accompanied  them  to  preach  in 
public  during  their  residence  at  Augsburg.  For  the 
same  reason,  they  employed  Melancthon,  the  man  of 
the  greatest  learning  as  well  as  of  the  most  pacific  and 
gentle  spirit  among  the  Reformers,  to  draw  up  a  con- 
fession of  their  faith,  expressed  in  terms  as  little  offen- 
sive to  the  Koman  Catholics  as  a  regard  for  truth  would 
permit.  Melancthon,  who  seldom  suffered  the  rancour 
of  controversy  to  envenom  his  style,  even  in  writings 
purely  polemical,  executed  a  task  so  agreeable  to  his 
natural  disposition  with  great  moderation  and  address. 
The  creed  which  he  composed,  known  by  the  name  of 
the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  from  the  place  where  it  was 
presented,  was  read  publicly  in  the  diet.  Some  popish 
divines  were  appointed  to  examine  it ;  they  brought  in 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEROE  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  613 

their  animadversions ;  a  dispute  ensued  between  them 
and  Melancthon,  seconded  by  some  of  his  brethren ; 
but  though  Melancthon  softened  some  articles,  made 
concessions  with  regard  to  others,  and  put  the  least  ex- 
ceptionable sense  upon  all, — though  the  emperor  him- 
self laboured  with  great  earnestness  to  reconcile  the 
contending  parties, — so  many  marks  of  distinction 
were  now  established,  and  such  insuperable  barriers 
placed  between  the  two  churches,  that  all  hopes  of 
bringing  about  a  coalition  seemed  utterly  desperate.38 

From  the  divines,  among  whom  his  endeavours  had 
been  so  unsuccessful,  Charles  turned  to  the  princes 
their  patrons.  Nor  did  he  find  them,  how  desirous 
soever  of  accommodation,  or  willing  to  oblige  the 
emperor,  more  disposed  than  the  former  to  renounce 
their  opinions.  At  that  time,  zeal  for  religion  took 
possession  of  the  minds  of  men  to  a  degree  which  can 
scarcely  be  conceived  by  those  who  live  in  an  age  when 
the  passions  excited  by  the  first  manifestation  of  truth 
and  the  first  recovery  of  liberty  have  in  a  great  measure 
ceased  to  operate.  This  zeal  was  then  of  such  strength 
as  to  overcome  attachment  to  their  political  interests, 
which  is  commonly  the  predominant  motive  among 
princes.  The  elector  of  Saxony,  the  landgrave  of 
Hesse,  and  other  chiefs  of  the  Protestants,  though 
solicited  separately  by  the  emperor,  and  allured  by  the 
promise  or  prospect  of  those  advantages  which  it  was 
known  they  were  more  solicitous  to  attain,  refused, 
with  a  fortitude  highly  worthy  of  imitation,  to  abandon 
what  they  deemed  the  cause  of  God,  for  the  sake  of 
any  earthly  acquisition.39 

Every  scheme  in  order  to  gain  or  disunite  the  Pro- 

38  Seckend.,  lib.  ii   159.  etc. —  159. 

Abr.    Sculteti   Annales  Evangdici,  39  Sleid.,  132. — Scultet.  Annal., 

ap.    Herm.  Von  der  Hard.,    Hist  168. 
Liter.  Reform.,  Lips.,  1717,  foL,  p. 


614  REIGN   OF   THE  [BOOK  v. 

testant  party  proving  abortive,  nothing  now  remained 
for  the  emperor  but  to  take  some  vigorous  measures 
towards  asserting  the  doctrines  and  authority  of  the 
established  Church.  These,  Campeggio,  the  papal 
nuncio,  had  always  recommended  as  the  only  proper 
and  effectual  course  of  dealing  with  such  obstinate 
heretics.  In  compliance  with  his  opinions  and  remon- 
strances, the  diet  issued  a  decree  condemning  most  of 
the  peculiar  tenets  held  by  the  Protestants,  forbidding 
any  person  to  protect  or  tolerate  such  as  taught  them, 
enjoining  a  strict  observance  of  the  established  rites, 
and  prohibiting  any  further  innovation,  under  severe 
penalties.  All  orders  of  men  were  required  to  assist 
with  their  persons  and  fortunes  in  carrying  this  decree 
into  execution;  and  such  as  refused  to  obey  it  were 
declared  incapable  of  acting  as  judges,  or  of  appearing 
as  parties  in  the  imperial  chamber,  the  supreme  court 
of  judicature  in  the  empire.  To  all  which  was  sub- 
joined a  promise  that  an  application  should  be  made 
to  the  pope  requiring  him  to  call  a  general  council 
within  six  months,  in  order  to  terminate  all  contro- 
versies by  its  sovereign  decisions.40 

The  severity  of  this  decree,  which  was  considered  as 
a  prelude  to  the  most  violent  persecution,  alarmed  the 
Protestants  and  convinced  them  that  the  emperor  was 
resolved  on  their  destruction.  The  dread  of  those 
calamities  which  were  ready  to  fall  on  the  Church  op- 
pressed the  feeble  spirit  of  Melancthon,  and,  as  if  the 
cause  had  already  been  desperate,  he  gave  himself  up 
to  melancholy  and  lamentation.  But  Luther,  who 
during  the  meeting  of  the  diet  had  endeavoured  to  con- 
firm and  animate  his  party  by  several  treatises  which 
he  addressed  to  them,  was  not  disconcerted  or  dis- 
mayed at  the  prospect  of  this  new  danger.  He  com- 
forted Melancthon  and  his  other  desponding  disciples, 

40  Sleid.,  139. 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEROE  CHARLES   THE    FIFTH.  615 

and  exhorted  the  princes  not  to  abandon  those  truths 
which  they  had  lately  asserted  with  such  laudable 
boldness.41  His  exhortations  made  the  deeper  impres- 
sion upon  them  as  they  were  greatly  alarmed  at  that 
time  by  the  account  of  a  combination  among  the 
popish  princes  of  the  empire  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  established  religion,  to  which  Charles  himself  had 
acceded.42  This  convinced  them  that  it  was  necessary 
to  stand  on  their  guard,  and  that  their  own  safety,  as 
well  as  the  success  of  their  cause,  depended  on  union. 
Filled  with  this  dread  of  the  adverse  party,  and  with 
these  sentiments  concerning  the  conduct  proper  for 
themselves,  they  assembled  at  Smalkalde.  There  they 
concluded  a  league  of  mutual  defence  against  •  all 
aggressors,43  by  which  they  formed  the  Protestant  states 
of  the  empire  into  one  regular  body,  and,  beginning 
already  to  consider  themselves  as  such,  they  resolved 
to  apply  to  the  kings  of  France  and  England  and  to 
implore  them  to  patronize  and  assist  their  new  con- 
federacy. 

An  affair  not  connected  with  religion  furnished  them 
with  a  pretence  for  courting  the  aid  of  foreign  princes. 
Charles,  whose  ambitious  views  enlarged  in  proportion 
to  the  increase  of  his  power  and  grandeur,  had  formed 
a  scheme  of  continuing  the  imperial  crown  in  his 
family,  by  procuring  his  brother  Ferdinand  to  be 
elected  king  of  the  Eomans.  The  present  juncture 
was  favourable  for  the  execution  of  that  design.  The 
emperor's  arms  had  been  everywhere  victorious;  he 
had  given  law  to  all  Europe  at  the  late  peace ;  no  rival 
now  remained  in  a  condition  to  balance  or  to  control 
him;  and  the  electors,  dazzled  with  the  splendour  of 
his  success,  or  overawed  by  the  greatness  of  his  power, 
durst  scarcely  dispute  the  will  of  a  prince  whose  solici- 

41  Seek.,  ii  180.— Sleid.    140.  42  Seek.,  iL  200  ;  iii.  11.  - 

43  Sleid.,  142. 


616  REIGN   OF   THE  [BOOK  v. 

tations  carried  with  them  the  authority  of  commands. 
Nor  did  he  want  plausible  reasons  to  enforce  the 
measure.  The  affairs  of  his  other  kingdoms,  he  said, 
obliged  him  to  be  often  absent  from  Germany ;  the 
growing  disorders  occasioned  by  the  controversies 
about  religion,  as  well  as  the  formidable  neighbourhood 
of  the  Turks,  who  continually  threatened  to  break  in 
with  their  desolating  armies  into  the  heart  of  the  em- 
pire, required  the  constant  presence  of  a  prince  en- 
dowed with  prudence  capable  of  composing  the  former, 
and  with  power  as  well  as  valour  sufficient  to  repel  the 
latter.  His  brother  Ferdinand  possessed  these  qualities 
in  an  eminent  degree  ;  by  residing  long  in  Germany,  he 
had  acquired  a  thorough  knowledge  of  its  constitution 
and  manners ;  having  been  present  almost  from  the  first 
rise  of  the  religious  dissensions,  he  knew  what  remedies 
were  most  proper,  what  the  Germans  could  bear,  and  how 
to  apply  them ;  as  his  own  dominions  lay  on  the  Turkish 
frontier,  he  was  the  natural  defender  of  Germany  against 
the  invasions  of  the  infidels,  being  prompted  by  interest 
no  less  than  he  would  be  bound  in  duty  to  oppose 
them. 

These  arguments  made  little  impression  on  the  Pro- 
testants. Experience  taught  them  that  nothing  had 
contributed  more  to  the  undisturbed  progress  of  their 
opinions  than  the  interregnum  after  Maximilian's  death, 
the  long  absence  of  Charles,  and  the  slackness  of  the 
reins  of  government  which  these  occasioned.  Con- 
scious of  the  advantages  which  their  cause  had  derived 
from  this  relaxation  of  government,  they  were  un- 
willing to  render  it  more  vigorous  by  giving  themselves 
a  new  and  a  fixed  master.  They  perceived  clearly  the 
extent  of  Charles's  ambition,  that  he  aimed  at  rendering 
the  imperial  crown  hereditary  in  his  family,  and  would 
of  course  establish  in  the  empire  an  absolute  dominion,  to 
which  elective  princes  could  not  have  aspired  with  equal 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES    THE   FIFTH.  617 

facility.  They  determined,  therefore,  to  oppose  the  elec- 
tion of  Ferdinand  with  the  utmost  vigour,  and  to  rouse 
their  countrymen,  by  their  example  and  exhortations,  to 
withstand  this  encroachment  on  their  liberties.  The 
elector  of  Saxony,  accordingly,  not  only  refused  to  be 
present  at  the  electoral  college  which  the  emperor  sum- 
moned to  meet  at  Cologne,  but  instructed  his  eldest  son 
to  appear  there  and  to  protest  against  the  election  as  in- 
formal, illegal,  contrary  to  the  articles  of  the  golden  bull, 
and  subversive  of  the  liberties  of  the  empire.  But  the 
other  electors,  whom  Charles  had  been  at  great  pains  to 
gain,  without  regarding  either  his  absence  or  protest, 
chose  Ferdinand  king  of  the  Eomans,  who,  a  few  days 
after,  was  crowned  at  Aix-la-Chapelle.44 

When  the  Protestants,  who  were  assembled  a  second 
time  at  Smalkalde,  received  an  account  of  this  transac- 
tion, and  heard  at  the  same  time  that  prosecutions  were 
commenced  in  the  imperial  chamber  against  some  of  their 
number  on  account  of  their  religious  principles,  they 
thought  it  necessary  not  only  to  renew  their  former  con- 
federacy, but  immediately  to  despatch  their  ambassadors 
into  France  arid  England.  Francis  had  observed  with 
all  the  jealousy  of  a  rival  the  reputation  which  the 
emperor  had  acquired  by  his  seeming  disinterested- 
ness and  moderation  in  settling  the  affairs  in  Italy,  and 
beheld  with  great  concern  the  successful  step  which  he 
had  taken  towards  perpetuating  and  extending  his 
authority  in  Germany  by  the  election  of  a  king  of  the 
Boinaiis.  Nothing,  however,  would  have  been  more 
impolitic  than  to  precipitate  his  kingdom  into  a  new 
war,  when  exhausted  by  extraordinary  efforts  and  dis- 
couraged by  ill  success,  before  it  had  got  time  to  recruit 
its  strength  or  to  forget  past  misfortunes.  As  no  provo- 
cation had  been  given  by  the  emperor,  and  hardly  a  pre- 

44  Sleid.,  142. — Seek.,  iii.  1. — P.  Heuter.,  Rer.  Austr.,  lib.  x  c.  6, 
p.  240. 


618  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  v. 

text  for  a  rupture  had  been  afforded  him,  he  could  not 
violate  a  treaty  of  peace  which  he  himself  had  so  lately 
solicited,  without  forfeiting  the  esteem  of  all  Europe  and 
being  detested  as  a  prince  void  of  probity  and  honour. 
He  observed  with  great  joy  powerful  factions  beginning 
to  form  in  the  empire  ;  he  listened  with  the  utmost  eager- 
ness to  the  complaints  of  the  Protestant  princes,  and, 
without  seeming  to  countenance  their  religious  opinions, 
determined  secretly  to  cherish  those  sparks  of  political 
discord  which  might  be  afterwards  kindled  into  a  flame. 
For  this  purpose  he  sent  William  de  Bellay,  one  of  the 
ablest  negotiators  in  France,  into  Germany,  who,  visiting 
the  courts  of  the  malcontent  princes,  and  heightening 
their  ill  humour  by  various  arts,  concluded  an  alliance 
between  them  and  his  master,45  which,  though  concealed 
at  that  time,  and  productive  of  no  immediate  effects,  laid 
the  foundation  of  a  union  fatal  on  many  occasions  to 
Charles's  ambitious  projects,  and  showed  the  discontented 
princes  of  Germany  where,  for  the  future,  they  might  find 
a  protector  no  less  able  than  willing  to  undertake  their 
defence  against  the  encroachments  of  the  emperor. 

The  king  of  England,  highly  incensed  against  Charles, 
in  complaisance  to  whom  the  pope  had  long  retarded 
and  now  openly  opposed  his  divorce,  was  no  less  disposed 
than  Francis  to  strengthen  a  league  which  might  be 
rendered  so  formidable  to  the  emperor.  But  his  favourite 
project  of  the  divorce  led  him  into  such  a  labyrinth  of 
schemes  and  negotiations,  and  he  was  at  the  same  time 
so  intent  on  abolishing  the  papal  jurisdiction  in  England, 
that  he  had  no  leisure  for  foreign  affairs.  This  obliged 
him  to  rest  satisfied  with  giving  general  promises,  to- 
gether with  a  small  supply  in  money,  to  the  confederates 
of  Smalkalde.46 

Meanwhile,    many    circumstances   convinced  Charles 

45  M&n.  de  Bellay,  129  a,  1 30  b.— Seek.,  iii.  14t 

46  Herbert,  152,  154. 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH*  619 

that  this  was  not  a  juncture  when  the  extirpation  of 
heresy  was  to  be  attempted  by  violence  and  rigour ;  that, 
in  compliance  with  the  pope's  inclinations,  he  had  already 
proceeded  with  imprudent  precipitation  ;  and  that  it  was 
more  his  interest  to  consolidate  Germany  into  one  united 
and  vigorous  body  than  to  divide  and  enfeeble  it  by  a 
civil  war.  The  Protestants,  who  were  considerable  as 
well  by  their  numbers  as  by  their  zeal,  had  acquired 
additional  weight  and  importance  by  their  joining  in 
that  confederacy  into  which  the  rash  steps  taken  at  Augs- 
burg had  forced  them.  Having  now  discovered  their  own 
strength,  they  despised  the  decisions  of  the  imperial 
chamber,  and,  being  secure  of  foreign  protection,  were 
ready  to  set  the  head  of  the  empire  at  defiance.  At  the 
same  time,  the  peace  with  France  was  precarious,  the 
friendship  of  an  irresolute  and  interested  pontiff  was  not  to 
be  relied  on,  and  Solyman,  in  order  to  repair  the  discredit 
and  loss  which  his  arms  had  sustained  in  the  former  cam- 
paign, was  preparing  to  enter  Austria  with  more  numerous 
forces.  On  all  these  accounts,  especially  the  last,  a  speedy 
accommodation  with  the  malcontent  princes  became  ne- 
cessary, not  only  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  future 
schemes,  but  for  insuring  his  present  safety.  Negotia- 
tions were  accordingly  carried  on  by  his  direction  with 
the  elector  of  Saxony  and  his  associates.  After  many 
delays,  occasioned  by  their  jealousy  of  the  emperor  and 
of  each  other, — after  innumerable  difficulties  arising  from 
the  ineflxible  nature  of  religious  tenets,  which  cannot 
admit  of  being  altered,  modified,  or  relinquished  in  the 
same  manner  as  points  of  political  interest, — terms  of 
pacification  were  agreed  upon  at  Nuremberg  and  ratified 
solemnly  in  the  diet  at  Eatisbon.  In  this  treaty  it  was 
stipulated  that  universal  peace  be  established  in  Germany 
until  the  meeting  of  a  general  council,  the  convocation  of 
which  within  six  months  the  emperor  shaJ  endeavour  to 
procure ;  that  no  person  shall  be  molested  on  account  of 


fi20  REIGN  OF  THE  TBOOK  r. 

religion  ;  that  a  stop  shall  be  put  to  all  processes  begun 
by  the  imperial  chamber  against  Protestants,  and  the 
sentences  already  passed  to  their  detriment  shall  be 
declared  void.  On  their  part,  the  Protestants  engaged 
to  assist  the  emperor  with  all  their  forces  in  resisting  the 
invasion  of  the  Turks.47  Thus,  by  their  firmness  in  ad- 
hering to  their  principles,  by  the  unanimity  with  which 
they  urged  all  their  claims,  and  by  their  dexterity  in 
availing  themselves  of  the  emperor's  situation  ;  the  Pro- 
testants obtained  terms  which  amounted  almost  to  a 
toleration  of  their  religion  ;  all  the  concessions  were  made 
by  Charles,  none  by  them ;  even  the  favourite  point  of 
their  approving  his  brother's  election  was  not  mentioned  ; 
and  the  Protestants  of  Germany,  who  had  hitherto  been 
viewed  only  as  a  religious  sect,  came  henceforth  to 
be  considered  as  a  political  body  of  no  small  conse- 
quence.48 

The  intelligence  which  Charles  received  of  Soly man's 
having  entered  Hungary  at  the  head  of  three  hundred 
thousand  men  brought  the  deliberations  of  the  diet  at 
Ratisbon  to  a  period,  the  contingent  both  of  troops  and 
money  which  each  prince  was  to  furnish  towards  the 
defence  of  the  empire  having  been  already  settled.  The 
Protestants,  as  a  testimony  of  their  gratitude  to  the  em- 
peror, exerted  themselves  with  extraordinary  zeal,  and 
brought  into  the  field  forces  which  exceeded  in  number 
the  quota  imposed  on  them  ;  and,  the  Catholics  imitating 
their  example,  one  of  the  greatest  and  best-appointod 
armies  that  had  ever  been  levied  in  Germany  assembled 
near  Vienna.  Being  joined  by  a  body  of  Spanish  and 
Italian  veterans  under  the  marquis  del  Guasto,  by  some 
heavy  armed  cavalry  from  the  Low  Countries,  and  by 
the  troops  which  Ferdinand  had  raised  in  Bohemia, 
Austria,  and  his  other  territories,  it  amounted  in  all  to 

47  Du  Mont,  Corps  Diplomatique,  torn.  iv.  part  ii.  87,  89. 
*  Sleid.,  149,  etc.— Seek., iii.  19. 


BOOK  v.J  EMPEROE  UHABLES  THE  FIFTH.  621 

ninety  thousand  disciplined  foot  and  thirty  thousand 
horse,  besides  a  prodigious  swarm  of  irregulars.  Of  this 
vast  array,  worthy  the  first  prince  in  Christendom,  the 
emperor  took  the  command  in  person,  and  mankind 
waited  in  suspense  the  issue  of  a  decisive  battle  between 
the  two  greatest  monarchs  in  the  world.  But,  each  of 
them  dreading  the  other's  power  and  good  fortune,  they 
both  conducted  their  operations  with  such  excessive 
caution  that  a  campaign  for  which  such  immense  pre- 
parations had  been  made  ended  without  any  memorable 
event.  Solyman,  finding  it  impossible  to  gain  ground 
upon  an  enemy  always  attentive  and  on  his  guard, 
marched  back  to  Constantinople  towards  the  end  of 
autumn.49  It  is  remarkable  that,  in  such  a  martial  age, 
when  every  gentleman  was  a  soldier  and  every  prince  a 
general,  this  was  the  first  time  that  Charles,  who  had 
already  carried  on  such  extensive  wars  and  gained  so 
many  victories,  appeared  at  the  head  of  his  troops.  In 
this  first  essay  of  his  arms,  to  have  opposed  such  a  leader 
as  Solyman  was  no  small  honour ;  to  have  obliged  him  to 
retreat,  merited  very  considerable  praise. 

About  the  beginning  of  this  campaign,  the  elector 
of  Saxony  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  John 
Frederick.  The  Reformation  rather  gained  than  lost 
by  that  event :  the  new  elector,  no  less  attached  than 
his  predecessors  to  the  opinions  of  Luther,  occupied 
the  station  which  they  had  held  at  the  head  of  the 
Protestant  party,  and  defended  with  the  boldness  and 
zeal  of  youth  that  cause  which  they  had  fostered  and 
reared  with  the  caution  of  more  advanced  age. 

Immediately  after  the  retreat  of  the  Turks,  Charles, 
impatient  to  revisit  Spain,  set  out  on  his  way  thither, 
for  Italy.  As  he  was  extremely  desirous  of  an  inter- 
view with  the  pope,  they  met  a  second  time  at  Bologna, 
with  the  same  external  demonstrations  of  respect  and 

49  Jovii  Hist,  lib.  xxx.  p.  100,  etc. — Barre,  Hist,  de  1'Empire,  i.  8,  647. 


622  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  v. 

friendship,  but  with  little  of  that  confidence  which  had 
subsisted  between  them  during  their  late  negotiations 
there.  Clement  was  much  dissatisfied  with  the  em- 
peror's proceedings  at  Augsburg,  his  concessions  with 
regard  to  the  speedy  convocation  of  a  council  having 
more  than  cancelled  all  the  merit  of  the  severe  decree 
against  the  doctrines  of  the  Eeformers.  The  toleration 
granted  to  the  Protestants  at  Eatisbon,  and  the  more 
explicit  promise  concerning  a  council  with  which  it  was 
accompanied,  had  irritated  him  still  farther.  Charles, 
however,  partly  from  conviction  that  the  meeting  of  a 
council  would  be  attended  with  salutary  effects,  and 
partly  from  his  desire  to  please  the  Germans,  having 
solicited  the  pope  by  his  ambassadors  to  call  that  assembly 
without  delay,  and  now  urging  the  same  thing  in  person, 
Clement  was  greatly  embarrassed  what  reply  he  should 
make  to  a  request  which  it  was  indecent  to  refuse  and 
dangerous  to  grant.  He  endeavoured  at  first  to  divert 
Charles  from  the  measure ;  but,  finding  him  inflexible, 
he  had  recourse  to  artifices  which  he  knew  would  delay, 
if  not  entirely  defeat,  the  calling  of  that  assembly. 
Under  the  plausible  pretext  of  its  being  previously 
necessary  to  settle,  with  all  parties  concerned,  the  place 
of  the  council's  meeting,  the  manner  of  its  proceedings, 
the  right  of  the  persons  who  should  be  admitted  to 
vote,  and  the  authority  of  their  decisions,  he  despatched 
a  nuncio,  accompanied  by  an  ambassador  from  the 
emperor,  to  the  elector  of  Saxony,  as  head  of  the 
Protestants.  With  regard  to  each  of  these  articles, 
inextricable  difficulties  and  contests  arose.  The  Pro- 
testants demanded  a  council  to  be  held  in  Germany ; 
the  pope  insisted  that  it  should  meet  in  Italy  :  they 
contended  that  all  points  in  dispute  should  be  deter- 
mined by  the  words  of  Holy  Scripture  alone ;  he  con- 
sidered not  only  the  decrees  of  the  Church,  but  the 
opinions  of  fathers  and  doctors,  as  of  equal  authority : 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEBOB  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  623 

they  required  a  free  council,  in  which  the  divines, 
commissioned  by  different  churches,  should  be  allowed 
a  voice;  he  aimed  at  modelling  the  council  in  such  a 
manner  as  would  render  it  entirely  dependent  on  his 
pleasure.  Above  all,  the  Protestants  thought  it  un- 
reasonable that  they  should  bind  themselves  to  submit 
to  the  decrees  of  a  council  before  they  knew  on  what 
principles  these  decrees  were  to  be  founded,  by  what 
persons  they  were  to  be  pronounced,  and  what  forms 
of  proceeding  they  would  observe.  The  pope  maintained 
it  to  be  altogether  unnecessary  to  call  a  council  if  those 
who  demanded  it  did  not  previously  declare  their  resolu- 
tion to  acquiesce  in  its  decrees.  In  order  to  adjust 
such  a  variety  of  points,  many  expedients  were  pro- 
posed, and  the  negotiations  spun  out  to  such  a  length 
as  effectually  answered  Clement's  purpose  of  putting 
off  the  meeting  of  a  council,  without  drawing  on 
himself  the  whole  infamy  of  obstructing  a  measure 
which  all  Europe  deemed  so  essential  to  the  good  of 
the  Church.50 

Together  with  this  negotiation  about  calling  a  council, 
the  emperor  carried  on  another,  which  he  had  still 
more  aj;  heart,  for  securing  the  peace  established  in 
Italy.  As  Francis  had  renounced  his  pretensions  in 
that  country  with  great  reluctance,  Charles  made  no 
doubt  but  that  he  would  lay  hold  on  the  first  pretext 
afforded  him,  or  embrace  the  first  opportunity  which 
presented  itself,  of  recovering  what  he  had  lost.  It 
became  necessary,  on  this  account,  to  take  measures 
for  assembling  an  army  able  to  oppose  him.  As  his 
treasury,  drained  by  a  long  war,  could  not  supply  the 
sums  requisite  for  keeping  such  a  body  constantly  on 
foot,  he  attempted  to  throw  that  burden  on  his  allies, 
and  to  provide  for  the  safety  of  his  own  dominions  at 
their  expense,  by  proposing  that  the  Italian  states 

511  F.  Paul,  Hist.,  62.— Seckend.,  iii.  73. 


624  REIGN   OF   THE  [BOOK  v. 

should  enter  into  a  league  of  defence  against  all  in- 
vaders ;  that  on  the  first  appearance  of  danger  an  army 
should  be  raised  and  maintained  at  the  common  charge  ; 
and  that  Antonio  de  Leyva  should  be  appointed  the 
generalissimo.  Nor  was  the  proposal  unacceptable  to 
Clement,  though  for  a  reason  very  different  from  that 
which  induced  the  emperor  to  make  it.  He  hoped  by 
this  expedient  to  deliver  Italy  from  the  German  and 
Spanish  veterans,  which  had  so  long  filled  all  the  powers 
in  that  country  with  terror,  and  still  kept  them  in  sub- 
jection to  the  imperial  yoke.  A  league  was  accordingly 
concluded ;  all  the  Italian  states,  the  Venetians  excepted, 
acceded  to  it;  the  sum  which  each  of  the  contracting 
partners  should  furnish  towards  maintaining  the  army 
was  fixed ;  the  emperor  agreed  to  withdraw  the  troops 
which  gave  so  much  umbrage  to  his  allies,  and  which 
he  was  unable  any  longer  to  support.  Having  dis- 
banded part  of  them,  and  removed  the  rest  to  Sicily  and 
Spain,  he  embarked  on  board  Doria's  galleys  and  arrived 
at  Barcelona.51 

Notwithstanding  all  his  precautions  for  securing  the 
peace  of  Germany  and  maintaining  that  system  which 
he  had  established  in  Italy,  the  emperor  became  every 
day  more  and  more  apprehensive  that  both  would  be 
soon  disturbed  by  the  intrigues  or  arms  of  the  French 
king.  His  apprehensions  were  well  founded,  as  nothing 
but  the  desperate  situation  of  his  affairs  could  have 
brought  Francis  to  give  his  consent  to  a  treaty  so  dis- 
honourable and  disadvantageous  as  that  of  Cambray. 
He,  at  the  very  time  of  ratifying  it,  had  formed  a 
resolution  to  observe  it  no  longer  than  necessity  com- 
pelled him,  and  took  a  solemn  protest,  though  with  the 
most  profound  secrecy,  against  several  articles  in  the 
treaty,  particularly  that  whereby  he  renounced  all  pre- 
tensions to  the  duchy  of  Milan,  as  unjust,  injurious  to 
w  Guic.,  lib.  »,  551, — Fen-eras,  ix.  149. 


v.j         EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  625 

his  heirs,  and  invalid.  One  of  the  crown  lawyers,  by 
his  command,  entered  a  protest  to  the  same  purpose,  and 
with  the  like  secrecy,  when  the  ratification  of  the  treaty 
was  registered  in  the  parliament  of  Paris.58  Francis 
seems  to  have  thought  that  by  employing  an  artifice 
unworthy  of  a  king,  destructive  of  public  faith,  and  of 
the  mutual  confidence  on  which  all  transactions  between 
nations  are  founded,  he  was  released  from  any  obligation 
to  perform  the  most  solemn  promises  or  to  adhere  to 
the  most  sacred  engagements.  From  the  moment  he 
concluded  the  peace  of  Cambray,  he  wished  and  watched 
for  an  opportunity  of  violating  it  with  safety.  He 
endeavoured  for  that  reason  to  strengthen  his  alliance 
with  the  king  of  England,  whose  friendship  he  culti- 
vated with  the  greatest  assiduity.  He  put  the  military 
force  of  his  own  kingdom  on  a  better  and  more  respect- 
able footing  than  ever.  He  artfully  fomented  the 
jealousy  and  discontent  of  the  German  princes.52 

But  above  all  Francis  laboured  to  break  the  strict  con- 
federacy which  subsisted  between  Charles  and  Clement ; 
and  he  had  soon  the  satisfaction  to  observe  appearances 
of  disgust  and  alienation  arising  in  the  mind  of  that 
suspicious  and  interested  pontiff,  which  gave  him  hopes 
that  their  union  would  not  be  lasting.  As  the  emperor's 
decision  in  favour  of  the  duke  of  Ferrara  had  greatly 
irritated  the  pope,  Francis  aggravated  the  injustice  of 
that  proceeding,  and  flattered  Clement  that  the  papal 
see  would  find  in  him  a  more  impartial  and  no  less 
powerful  protector.  As  the  importunity  with  which 
Charles  demanded  a  council  was  extremely  offensive  to 
the  pope,  Francis  artfully  created  obstacles  to  prevent 
it,  and  attempted  to  divert  the  German  princes,  his 
allies,  from  insisting  so  obstinately  on  that  point.53  As 
the  emperor  had  gained  such  an  ascendant  over  Clement 

"  Du  Mont,  Corps  Diplom.,  torn.  M  Mem.   de  Belluy,    141,  etc.— 

iv.  part  ii.  p.  52.  Seek.,  iii.  48. — F   Paul,  63. 

VOL.  i.  s  g 


626  EEIGN  OF  THE  [WOK  v. 

by  contributing  to  aggrandize  his  family,  Francis  endea- 
voured to  allure  him  by  the  same  irresistible  bait, 
proposing  a  marriage  between  his  second  son,  Henry, 
duke  of  Orleans,  and  Catharine,  the  daughter  of  the 
pope's  cousin,  Laurence  de'  Medici.  On  the  first  over- 
ture of  this  match,  the  emperor  could  not  persuade 
himself  that  Francis  really  intended  to  debase  the  royal 
blood  of  France  by  an  alliance  with  Catharine,  whose 
ancestors  had  been  so  lately  private  citizens  and  mer- 
chants in  Florence,  and  believed  that  he  meant  only  to 
natter  or  amuse  the  ambitious  pontiff.  He  thought  it 
necessary,  however,  to  efface  the  impression  which  such 
a  dazzling  offer  might  have  made,  by  promising  to  break 
off  the  marriage  which  had  been  agreed  on  between  his 
own  niece,  the  king  of  Denmark's  daughter,  and  the 
duke  of  Milan,  and  to  substitute  Catharine  in  her  place. 
But,  the  French  ambassador  producing  unexpectedly 
full  powers  to  conclude  the  marriage-treaty  with  the 
duke  of  Orleans,  this  expedient  had  no  effect.  Clement 
was  so  highly  pleased  with  an  honour  which  added  such 
lustre  and  dignity  to  the  house  of  Medici  that  he  offered 
to  grant  Catharine  the  investiture  of  considerable  terri- 
tories in  Italy,  by  way  of  portion ;  he  seemed  ready  to 
support  Francis  in  prosecuting  his  ancient  claims  in  that 
country,  and  consented  to  a  personal  interview  with  that 
nonarch  54 

Charles  was  at  the  utmost  pains  to  prevent  a  meeting 
,n  which  nothing  was  likely  to  pass  but  what  would  be 
of  detriment  to  him ;  nor  could  he  bear,  after  he  had 
twice  condescended  to  visit  the  pope  in  his  own  terri- 
tories, that  Clement  should  bestow  such  a  mark  of  dis- 
tinction on  his  rival  as  to  venture  on  a  voyage  by  sea, 
at  an  unfavourable  season,  in  order  to  pay  court  to 
Francis  in  the  French  dominions.  But  the  pope's 
eagerness  to  accomplish  the  match  overcame  all  the 

64   Guic.,   lib.    xx.    551,    553.— Mem.  de  Bellay,  138. 


*OOK  v.]  EMPEfcOfc    CHAELES   THE    FIFTH.  627 

scruples  of  pride,  or  fear,  or  jealousy,  which  would 
have  probably  influenced  him  on  any  other  occasion. 
The  interview,  notwithstanding  several  artifices  of  the 
emperor  to  prevent  it,  took  place  at  Marseilles,  with 
extraordinary  pomp,  and  demonstrations  of  confidence 
on  both  sides ;  and  the  marriage,  which  the  ambition 
and  abilities  of  Catharine  rendered  in  the  sequel  as 
pernicious  to  France  as  it  was  then  thought  dishonour- 
able, was  consummated.  But  whatever  schemes  may 
have  been  secretly  concerted  by  the  pope  and  Francis 
in  favour  of  the  duke  of  Orleans,  to  whom  his  father 
proposed  to  make  over  all  his  rights  in  Italy,  so  careful 
were  they  to  avoid  giving  any  cause  of  offence  to  the 
emperor  that  no  treaty  was  concluded  between  them  ; 55 
and  even  in  the  marriage- articles  Catherine  renounced 
all  claims  and  pretensions  in  Italy,  except  to  the  duchy 
of  Urbino.56 

But  at  the  very  time  when  he  was  carrying  on  these 
negotiations,  and  forming  this  connection  with  Francis, 
which  gave  so  great  umbrage  to  the  emperor,  such  was 
the  artifice  and  duplicity  of  Clement's  character  that 
he  suffered  the  latter  to  direct  all  his  proceedings  with 
regard  to  the  king  of  England,  and  was  no  less  atten- 
tive to  gratify  him  in  that  particular  than  if  the  most 
cordial  union  had  subsisted  between  them.  Henry's 
suit  for  a  divorce  had  now  continued  near  six  years ; 
during  all  which  period  the  pope  negotiated,  promised, 
retracted,  and  concluded  nothing.  After  bearing  re- 
peated delays  and  disappointments  longer  than  could 
have  been  expected  from  a  prince  of  such  a  choleric 
find  impetuous  temper,  the  patience  of  Henry  was  at 
last  so  much  exhausted  that  he  applied  to  another 
tribunal  for  that  decree  which  he  had  solicited  in 
vain  at  Rome.  Cranmer,  archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
by  a  sentence  founded  on  the  authority  of  universities, 

M  Guic.,  lib.  xx.  556.         w  Du  Mont,  Corps  Diplom.,  iv.  part  ii.  101. 

882 


628  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  v. 

doctors,  and  rabbis,  who  had  been  consulted  with 
respect  to  the  point,  annulled  the  king's  marriage  with 
Catharine ;  her  daughter  was  declared  illegitimate,  and 
Anne  Boleyn  acknowledged  as  queen  of  England.  At 
the  same  time,  Henry  began  not  only  to  neglect  and  to 
threaten  the  pope,  whom  he  had  hitherto  courted,  but 
to  make  innovations  in  the  Church  of  which  he  had 
formerly  been  such  a  zealous  defender.  Clement,  who 
had  already  seen  so  many  provinces  and  kingdoms  revolt 
from  the  Holy  See,  became  apprehensive  at  last  that 
England  might  imitate  their  example,  and,  partly  from 
his  solicitude  to  prevent  that  fatal  blow,  partly  in  com- 
pliance with  the  French  king's  solicitations,  determined 
to  give  Henry  such  satisfaction  as  might  retain  him 
within  the  bosom  of  the  Church.  But  the  violence  of 
the  cardinals,  devoted  to  the  emperor,  did  not  allow  the 
pope  leisure  for  executing  this  prudent  resolution,  and 
hurried  him,  with  a  precipitation  fatal  to  the  Eoman 
see,  to  issue  a  bull  rescinding  Cranmer's  sentence,  con- 
firming Henry's  marriage  with  Catharine,  and  declaring 
him  excommunicated  if  within  a  time  specified  he  did 
not  abandon  the  wife  he  had  taken  and  return  to  her 
whom  he  had  deserted.  Enraged  at  this  unexpected 
decree,  Henry  kept  no  longer  any  measures  with  the 
court  of  Eome;  his  subjects  seconded  his  resentment 
and  indignation;  an  act  of  parliament  was  passed 
abolishing  the  papal  power  and  jurisdiction  in  England  ; 
by  another,  the  king  was  declared  supreme  head  of  the 
Church,  and  all  the  authority  of  which  the  popes  were 
deprived  was  vested  in  him.  That  vast  fabric  of  ecclesi- 
astical dominion  which  had  been  raised  with  such  art, 
and  of  which  the  foundations  seemed  to  have  been  laid 
so  deep,  being  no  longer  supported  by  the  veneration  of 
the  people,  was  overturned  in  a  moment.  Henry  him- 
self, with  the  caprice  peculiar  to  his  character,  continued 
to  defend  the  doctrines  of  the  Eomish  Church  as  fiercely 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEKOB  CHARLB6  THE  FIFTH.  629 

as  he  attacked  its  jurisdiction.  He  alternately  perse- 
cuted the  Protestants  for  rejecting  the  former,  and  the 
Catholics  for  acknowledging  the  latter.  But  his  sub- 
jects, being  once  permitted  to  enter  into  new  paths,  did 
not  choose  to  stop  short  at  the  precise  point  prescribed 
by  him.  Having  been  encouraged  by  his  example  to 
break  some  of  their  fetters,  they  were  so  impatient  to 
shake  off  what  still  remained 57  that  in  the  following 
reign,  with  the  applause  of  the  greater  part  of  the 
nation,  a  total  separation  was  made  from  the  Church  of 
Rome  in  articles  of  doctrine,  as  well  as  in  matters  of 
discipline  and  jurisdiction. 

A  short  delay  might  have  saved  the  see  of  Rome  from 
all  the  unhappy  consequences  of  Clement's  rashness. 
Soon  after  his  sentence  against  Henry,  he  fell  into  a 
languishing  distemper,  which,  gradually  wasting  his 
constitution,  put  an  end  to  his  pontificate,  the  most  un- 
fortunate, both  during  its  continuance  and  by  its  effects, 
that  the  Church  had  known  for  many  ages.  The  very 
day  on  which  the  cardinals  entered  the  conclave,  they 
raised  to  the  papal  throne  Alexander  Farnese,  dean  of 
the  sacred  college,  and  the  oldest  member  of  that  body, 
who  assumed  the  name  of  Paul  III.  The  account  of  his 
promotion  was  received  with  extraordinary  acclamations 
of  joy  by  the  people  of  Rome,  highly  pleased,  after  an 
interval  of  more  than  a  hundred  years,  to  see  the  crown 
of  St.  Peter  placed  on  the  head  of  a  Roman  citizen. 
Persons  more  capable  of  judging  formed  a  favourable 
presage  of  his  administration,  from  the  experience 
which  he  had  acquired  under  four  pontificates,  as  well 
as  the  character  of  prudence  and  moderation  which  he 
had  uniformly  maintained  in  a  station  of  great  eminence, 
and  during  an  active  period,  that  required  both  talents 
and  address.58 

57  Herbert.— Burnet,  Hist  of  Re-          S8  Guic.,  lib.  xx,  656, — F. 
form.  64. 


630  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  v. 

Europe,  it  is  probable,  owed  the  continuance  of  its 
peace  to  the  death  of  Clement ;  for,  although  no  traces 
remain  in  history  of  any  league  concluded  between  him 
and  Francis,  it  is  scarcely  to  be  doubted  but  that  he 
would  have  seconded  the  operations  of  the  French  arms 
in  Italy,  that  he  might  have  gratified  his  ambition  by 
seeing  one  of  his  family  possessed  of  the  supreme  power 
in  Florence,  and  another  in  Milan.  But  upon  the  elec- 
tion of  Paul  III.,  who  had  hitherto  adhered  uniformly 
to  the  imperial  interest,  Francis  found  it  necessary  to 
suspend  his  operations  for  some  time,  and  to  put  off  the 
commencement  of  hostilities  against  the  emperor,  on 
which,  before  the  death  of  Clement,  he  had  been  fully 
determined. 

While  Francis  waited  for  an  opportunity  to  renew  a 
war  which  had  hitherto  proved  so  fatal  to  himself  and 
his  subjects,  a  transaction  of  a  very  singular  nature 
was  carried  on  in  Germany.  Among  many  beneficial 
and  salutary  effects  of  which  the  Eef ormation  was  the 
immediate  cause,  it  was  attended,  as  must  be  the  case 
in  all  actions  and  events  wherein  men  are  concerned, 
with  some  consequences  of  an  opposite  nature.  When 
the  human  mind  is  roused  by  grand  objects  and  agitated 
by  strong  passions,  its  operations  acquire  such  force 
that  they  are  apt  to  become  irregular  and  extravagant. 
Upon  any  great  revolution  in  religion,  such  irregularities 
abound  most  at  that  particular  period  when  men,  having 
thrown  off  the  authority  of  their  ancient  principles,  do 
not  yet  fully  comprehend  the  nature  or  feel  the  obliga- 
tion of  those  new  tenets  which  they  have  embraced. 
The  mind,  in  that  situation,  pushing  forward  with  the 
boldness  which  prompted  it  to  reject  established  opinions, 
and  not  guided  by  a  clear  knowledge  of  the  system 
substituted  in  their  place,  disdains  all  restraint,  and  runs 
into  wild  notions,  which  often  lead  to  scandalous  or  im- 
moral conduct.  Thus,  in  the  first  ages  of  the  Christian 


BOOK  v.J  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  631 

Church,  many  of  the  new  converts,  having  renounced 
their  ancient  systems  of  religious  faith,  and  being  but 
imperfectly  acquainted  with  the  doctrines  and  precepts 
of  Christianity,  broached  the  most  extravagant  opinions, 
equally  subversive  of  piety  and  virtue  ;  all  which  errors 
disappeared  or  were  exploded  when  the  knowledge  of 
religion  increased  and  came  to  be  more  generally  diffused. 
In  like  manner,  soon  after  Luther's  appearance,  the 
rashness  or  ignorance  of  some  of  his  disciples  led  them 
to  publish  tenets  no  less  absurd  than  pernicious,  which, 
being  proposed  to  men  extremely  illiterate  but  fond  of 
novelty,  and  at  a  time  when  their  minds  were  occupied 
chiefly  with  religious  speculations,  gained  too  easy  credit 
and  authority  among  them.  To  these  causes  must  be 
imputed  the  extravagances  of  Muncer,  in  the  year  1525, 
as  well  as  the  rapid  progress  which  his  opinions  made 
among  the  peasants ;  but,  though  the  insurrection  ex- 
cited by  that  fanatic  was  soon  suppressed,  several  of  his 
followers  lurked  in  different  places,  and  endeavoured 
privately  to  propagate  his  opinions. 

In  those  provinces  of  Upper  Germany  which  had 
already  been  so  cruelly  wasted  by  their  enthusiastic 
rage,  the  magistrates  watched  theii  motions  with  such 
severe  attention  that  many  of  them  found  it  necessary 
to  retire  into  other  countries;  some  were  punished, 
others  driven  into  exile,  and  their  errors  were  entirely 
rooted  out.  But  in  the  Netherlands  and  Westphalia, 
where  the  pernicious  tendency  of  their  opinions  was 
more  unknown  and  guarded  against  with  less  care,  they 
got  admittance  into  several  towns,  and  spread  the  infec- 
tion of  their  principles.  The  most  remarkable  of  their 
religious  tenets  related  to  the  sacrament  of  baptism, 
which,  as  they  contended,  ought  to  be  administered  only 
to  persons  grown  up  to  years  of  understanding,  and 
should  be  performed,  not  by  sprinkling  them  witli 
water,  but  by  dipping  them  in  it :  for  this  reason  they 


632  REIGN    OF    THE  [BOOK  v. 

condemned  the  baptism  of  infants,  and,  rebaptizing  all 
whom  they  admitted  into  their  society,  the  sect  came  to 
be  distinguished  by  the  name  of  Anabaptists.  To  this 
peculiar  notion  concerning  baptism,  which  has  the  ap- 
pearance of  being  founded  on  the  practice  of  the  Church 
in  the  apostolic  age,  and  contains  nothing  inconsistent 
with  the  peace  and  order  of  human  society,  they  added 
other  principles  of  a  most  enthusiastic  as  well  as  danger- 
ous nature.  They  maintained  that  among  Christians, 
who  had  the  precepts  of  the  gospel  to  direct  and  the 
Spirit  of  God  to  guide  them,  the  office  of  magistracy  was 
not  only  unnecessary,  but  an  unlawful  encroachment  on 
their  spiritual  liberty ;  that  the  distinctions  occasioned 
by  birth  or  rank  or  wealth,  being  contrary  to  the  spirit 
of  the  gospel,  which  considers  all  men  as  equals,  should 
be  entirely  abolished ;  that  all  Christians,  throwing 
their  possessions  into  one  common  stock,  should  live 
together  in  that  state  of  equality  which  becomes  mem- 
bers of  the  same  family ;  that  as  neither  the  laws  of 
nature  nor  the  precepts  of  the  New  Testament  had 
imposed  any  restraints  upon  men  with  regard  to  the 
number  of  wives  which  they  might  marry,  they  should 
use  that  liberty  which  God  himself  had  granted  to  the 
patriarchs. 

Such  opinions,  propagated  and  maintained  with  en- 
thusiastic zeal  and  boldness,  were  not  long  without 
producing  the  violent  effects  natural  to  them.  Two 
Anabaptist  prophets,  John  Matthias,  a  baker  of  Haer- 
lem,  and  John  Boccold,  or  Beiikels,  a  journeyman  tailor 
of  Leyden,  possessed  with  the  rage  of  making  pro- 
selytes, fixed  their  residence  at  Munster,  an  imperial 
city  in  Westphalia,  of  the  first  rank,  under  the  sove- 
reignty of  its  bishop,  but  governed  by  its  own  senate 
and  consuls.  As  neither  of  these  fanatics  wanted  the 
talents  requisite  in  desperate  enterprises,  great  resolu- 
tion, the  appearance  of  sanctity^  bold  pretensions  to 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEROK  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  633 

inspiration,  and  a  confident  and  plausible  manner  of 
discoursing,  they  soon  gained  many  converts.  Among 
these  were  Kothman,  who  had  first  preached  the  Pro- 
testant doctrine  in  Munster,  and  Cnipperdoling,  a  citizen 
of  good  birth  and  considerable  eminence.  Emboldened 
by  the  countenance  of  such  disciples,  they  openly  taught 
their  opinions;  and,  not  satisfied  with  that  liberty, 
they  made  several  attempts,  though  without  success,  to 
become  masters  of  the  town,  in  order  to  get  their  tenets 
established  by  public  authority.  At  last,  having  secretly 
called  in  their  associates  from  the  neighbouring  country, 
they  suddenly  took  possession  of  the  arsenal  and  senate- 
house  in  the  night-time,  and,  running  through  the  streets 
with  drawn  swords  and  horrible  howlings,  cried  out 
alternately,  "  Eepent,  and  be  baptized,"  and,  "Depart, 
ye  ungodly."  The  senators,  the  canons,  the  nobility, 
together  with  the  more  sober  citizens,  whether  Papists 
or  Protestants,  terrified  at  their  threats  and  outcries, 
fled  in  confusion,  and  left  the  city  under  the  dominion 
of  a  frantic  multitude  consisting  chiefly  of  strangers. 
Nothing  now  remaining  to  overawe  or  control  them, 
they  set  about  modelling  the  government  according  to 
their  own  wild  ideas ;  and  though  at  first  they  showed 
so  much  reverence  for  the  ancient  constitution  as  to 
select  senators  of  their  own,  and  to  appoint  Cnipperdoling 
and  another  proselyte  consuls,  this  was  nothing  more 
than  form ;  for  all  their  proceedings  were  directed  by 
Matthias,  who,  in  the  style  and  with  the  authority  of 
a  prophet,  uttered  his  commands,  which  it  was  instant 
death  to  disobey.  Having  begun  with  encouraging 
the  multitude  to  pillage  the  churches  and  deface  their 
ornaments,  he  enjoined  them  to  destroy  all  books 
except  the  Bible,  as  useless  or  impious ;  he  ordered 
the  estates  of  such  as  fled  to  be  confiscated  and  sold 
to  the  inhabitants  of  the  adjacent  country ;  he  com- 
manded every  man  to  bring  forth  his  gold,  silver,  and 


634  REIGN  OP  THE  [BOOK  v. 

other  precious  effects,  and  to  lay  them  at  his  feet ; 
the  wealth  amassed  by  these  means  he  deposited  in  a 
public  treasury,  and  named  deacons  to  dispense  it  for 
the  common  use  of  all.  The  members  of  his  common- 
wealth being  thus  brought  to  a  perfect  equality,  he 
commanded  all  of  them  to  eat  at  tables  prepared  in 
public,  and  even  prescribed  the  dishes  which  were  to 
be  served  up  each  day.  Having  finished  his  plan  of 
reformation,  his  next  care  was  to  provide  for  the  defence 
of  the  city ;  and  he  took  measures  for  that  purpose 
with  a  prudence  which  savoured  nothing  of  fanaticism. 
He  collected  large  magazines  of  every  kind ;  he  repaired 
and  extended  the  fortifications,  obliging  every  person 
without  distinction  to  work  in  his  turn  ;  he  formed  such 
as  were  capable  of  bearing  arms  into  regular  bodies, 
and  endeavoured  to  add  the  stability  of  discipline  to  the 
impetuosity  of  enthusiasm.  He  sent  emissaries  to  the 
Anabaptists  in  the  Low  Countries,  inviting  them  to 
assemble  at  Munster,  which  he  dignified  with  the  name 
of  Mount  Sion,  that  from  thence  they  might  set  out  to 
reduce  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  under  their  dominion. 
He  himself  was  unwearied  in  attending  to  everything 
necessary  for  the  security  or  increase  of  the  sect ; 
animating  his  disciples  by  his  own  example  to  decline 
no  labour,  as  well  as  to  submit  to  every  hardship  ;  and, 
their  enthusiastic  passions  being  kept  from  subsiding 
by  a  perpetual  succession  of  exhortations,  revelations, 
and  prophecies,  they  seemed  ready  to  undertake  or  to 
suffer  anything  in  maintenance  of  their  opinions. 

While  they  were  thus  employed,  the  bishop  of 
Munster,  having  assembled  a  considerable  army,  ad- 
vanced to  besiege  the  town.  On  his  approach,  Matthias 
sallied  out  at  the  head  of  some  chosen  troops,  attacked 
one  quarter  of  his  camp,  forced  it,  and,  after  great 
slaughter,  returned  to  the  city  loaded  with  glory  and 
spoil.  Intoxicated  with  this  success,  he  appeared  next 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEKOR  OHAKLES  THE  FIFTH.  635 

day  brandishing  a  spear,  and  declared  that,  in  imitation 
of  Gideon,  he  would  go  forth  with  a  handful  of  men 
and  smite  the  host  of  the  ungodly.  Thirty  persons, 
whom  he  named,  followed  him  without  hesitation  in 
this  wild  enterprise,  and,  rushing  on  the  enemy  with  a 
frantic  courage,  were  cut  off  to  a  man.  The  death  of 
their  prophet  occasioned  at  first  great  consternation 
among  his  disciples ;  but  Boccold,  by  the  same  gifts 
and  pretensions  which  had  gained  Matthias  credit, 
soon  revived  their  spirits  and  hopes  to  such  a  degree 
that  he  succeeded  the  deceased  prophet  in  the  same 
absolute  direction  of  all  their  affairs.  As  he  did  not 
possess  that  enterprising  courage  which  distinguished 
his  predecessor,  he  satisfied  himself  with  carrying  on 
a  defensive  war ;  and,  without  attempting  to  annoy  the 
enemy  by  sallies,  he  waited  for  the  succours  he  expected 
from  the  Low  Countries,  the  arrival  of  which  was  often 
foretold  and  promised  by  their  prophets.  But,  though 
less  daring  in  action  than  Matthias,  he  was  a  wilder 
enthusiast,  and  of  more  unbounded  ambition.  Soon 
after  the  death  of  his  predecessor,  having  by  obscure 
visions  and  prophecies  prepared  the  multitude  for  some 
extraordinary  event,  he  stripped  himself  naked,  and, 
marching  through  the  streets,  proclaimed  with  a  loud 
voice,  "  That  the  kingdom  of  Sion  was  at  hand ;  that 
whatever  was  highest  on  earth  should  be  brought  low, 
and  whatever  was  lowest  should  be  exalted."  In  order 
to  fulfil  this,  he  commanded  the  churches,  as  the  most 
lofty  buildings  in  the  city,  to  be  levelled  with  the 
ground ;  he  degraded  the  senators  chosen  by  Matthias, 
and,  depriving  Cnipper doling  of  the  consulship,  the 
highest  office  in  the  commonwealth,  appointed  him  to 
execute  the  lowest  and  most  infamous,  that  of  common 
hangman,  to  which  strange  transition  the  other  agreed, 
not  only  without  murmuring,  but  with  the  utmost  joy  ; 
and  such  was  the  despotic  rigour  of  Boccold's  adminis- 


63 G  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  v. 

tration,  that  he  was  called  almost  every  day  to  perform 
some  duty  or  other  of  his  wretched  function.  In  place 
of  the  deposed  senators,  he  named  twelve  judges, 
according  to  the  number  of  tribes  in  Israel,  to  preside 
in  all  affairs,  retaining  to  himself  the  same  authority 
which  Moses  anciently  possessed  as  legislator  of  that 
people. 

Not  satisfied,  however,  with  power  or  titles  which 
were  not  supreme,  a  prophet,  whom  he  had  gained  and 
tutored,  having  called  the  multitude  together,  declared 
it  to  be  the  will  of  God  that  John  Boccold  should  be 
king  of  Sion,  and  sit  on  the  throne  of  David.  John, 
kneeling  down,  accepted  of  the  heavenly  call,  which 
he  solemnly  protested  had  been  revealed  likewise  to 
himself,  and  was  immediately  acknowledged  as  monarch 
by  the  deluded  multitude.  From  that  moment  he 
assumed  all  the  state  and  pomp  of  royalty.  He  wore 
a  crown  of  gold,  and  was  clad  in  the  richest  and 
most  sumptuous  garments.  A  Bible  was  carried  on  his 
one  hand,  a  naked  sword  on  the  other.  A  great  body 
of  guards  accompanied  him  when  he  appeared  in  public. 
He  coined  money  stamped  with  his  own  image,  and  ap- 
pointed the  great  officers  of  his  household,  and  kingdom, 
among  whom  Cnipperdoling  was  nominated  governor  of 
the  city,  as  a  reward  for  his  former  submission. 

Having  now  attained  the  height  of  power,  Boccold 
began  to  discover  passions  which  he  had  hitherto  re- 
strained, or  indulged  only  in  secret.  As  the  excesses 
of  enthusiasm  have  been  observed  in  every  age  to  lead 
to  sensual  gratifications,  the  same  constitution  that  is 
susceptible  of  the  former  being  remarkably  prone  to 
the  latter,  he  instructed  the  prophets  and  teachers  to 
harangue  the  people  for  several  days  concerning  the 
lawfulness,  and  even  necessity,  of  taking  more  wives 
than  one,  which  they  asserted  to  be  one  of  the  privileges 
granted  by  God  to  the  saints.  When  their  ears  were 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEROB    CHAELES   THE   FIFTH.  637 

once  accustomed  to  this  licentious  doctrine,  and  their 
passions  inflamed  with  the  prospect  of  such  unbounded 
indulgence,  he  himself  set  them  an  example  of  using 
what  he  called  their  Christian  liberty,  by  marrying 
at  once  three  wives,  among  which  the  widow  of 
Matthias,  a  woman  of  singular  beauty,  was  one.  As 
he  was  allured  by  beauty,  or  the  love  of  variety,  he 
gradually  added  to  the  number  of  his  wives  until  they 
amounted  to  fourteen,  though  the  widow  of  Matthias 
was  the  only  one  dignified  with  the  title  of  queen  or 
who  shared  with  him  the  splendour  and  ornaments  of 
royalty.  After  the  example  of  their  prophet,  the  multi- 
tude gave  themselves  up  to  the  most  licentious  and 
uncontrolled  gratification  of  their  desires.  No  man 
remained  satisfied  with  a  single  wife.  Not  to  use  their 
Christian  liberty  was  deemed  a  crime.  Persons  were 
appointed  to  search  the  houses  for  young  women  grown 
up  to  maturity,  whom  they  instantly  compelled  to 
marry.  Together  with  polygamy,  freedom  of  divorce, 
its  inseparable  attendant,  was  introduced,  and  became 
a  new  source  of  corruption.  Every  excess  was  com- 
mitted of  which  the  passions  of  men  are  capable  when 
restrained  neither  by  the  authority  of  laws  nor  the 
sense  of  decency ; 59  and,  by  a  monstrous  and  almost 
incredible  conjunction,  voluptuousness  was  engrafted  on 


et  concionatorum  "  Nemo  unft  contentus  fuit,  neque 

autoritate   juxta    et    exemplo,   tot&  cuiquam  extra  effcetas  et  viris  ini- 

urbe    ad     rapitndas     pulcherriinas  maturas  continentiesselicuit."  (Id., 

quasque    fceminas    discursum    est.  307.)      "  Tacebo  hie,   lit  sit  suus 

Nee    intra    paucos    dies,    in    tantfi,  honor  auribus,  quanta  barbaria  et 

hominum  turb&,   fere  ulla  reperta  militi£  usi  sunt  in  puellis  vitiandis 

est  supra  annum  decimum  quartum,  nondum  aptis  matriinonio,  id  quod 

quse    stuprum    passa    nou    fuerit."  mihi  neque  ex  vano,  neque  ex  vulgi 

(Lanib.  Hortens.,  p.  303.)    "  Vulgo  sermonibus  haustura  est,  sed  ex  eft 

viris  quinas   esse  uxores,   pluribus  vetul&,  cui  cura  sic  vitiatamm  de- 

senas,  nonnullis  septenas  et  octonas.  mandata  fuit,  auditum."    Joh.  Cor- 

Puellas    supra  duodecimuin    setatis  vinus,  316. 
annum  statim  amare."     (Id.,  305.) 


638  REIGN   OF  THE  [BOOK  v. 

religion,  and  dissolute  riot  accompanied  the  austerities 
of  fanatical  devotion. 

Meanwhile,  the  German  princes  were  highly  offended 
at  the  insult  offered  to  their  dignity  by  Boccold's  pre- 
sumptuous usurpation  of  royal  honours ;  and  the  pro- 
fligate manners  of  his  followers,  which  were  a  reproach 
to  the  Christian  name,  filled  men  of  all  professions 
with  horror.  Luther,  who  had  testified  against  this 
fanatical  spirit  on  its  first  appearance,  now  deeply 
lamented  its  progress,  and,  having  exposed  the  delusion 
with  great  strength  of  argument  as  well  as  acrimony 
of  style,  called  loudly  on  all  the  states  of  Germany  to 
put  a  stop  to  frenzy  no  less  pernicious  to  society  than 
fatal  to  religion.  The  emperor,  occupied  with  other 
cares  and  projects,  had  not  leisure  to  attend  to  such  a 
distant  object ;  but  the  princes  of  the  empire,  assembled 
by  the  king  of  the  Eomans,  voted  a  supply  of  men  and 
money  to  the  bishop  of  Munster,  who,  being  unable  to 
keep  a  sufficient  army  on  foot,  had  converted  the  siege 
of  the  town  into  a  blockade.  The  forces  raised  in 
consequence  of  this  resolution  were  put  under  the 
command  of  an  officer  of  experience,  who,  approach- 
ing the  town  towards  the  end  of  spring  in  the  year 
1535,  pressed  it  more  closely  than  formerly,  but  found 
the  fortifications  so  strong  and  so  diligently  guarded 
that  he  durst  not  attempt  an  assault.  It  was  now 
about  fifteen  months  since  the  Anabaptists  had  esta- 
blished their  dominion  in  Munster;  they  had  during 
that  time  undergone  prodigious  fatigue  in  working  on 
the  fortifications  and  performing  military  duty.  Not- 
withstanding the  prudent  attention  of  their  king  to 
provide  for  their  subsistence,  and  his  frugal  as  well  as 
regular  economy  in  their  public  meals,  they  began  to 
feel  the  approach  of  famine.  Several  small  bodies  of 
their  brethren,  who  were  advancing  to  their  assistance 
from  the  Low  Countries,  had  been  intercepted  and  cut 


hook  v.]  EMPEBOfc  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  639 

to  pieces ;  and  while  all  Germany  was  ready  to  com- 
bine against  them,  they  had  no  prospect  of  succour. 
But  such  was  the  ascendant  which  Boccold  had  acquired 
over  the  multitude,  and  so  powerful  the  fascination 
of  enthusiasm,  that  their  hopes  were  as  sanguine  as 
ever,  and  they  hearkened  with  implicit  credulity  to 
the  visions  and  predictions  of  their  prophets,  who 
assured  them  that  the  Almighty  would  speedily  inter- 
pose in  order  to  deliver  the  city.  The  faith,  however, 
of  some  few,  shaken  by  the  violence  and  length  of  their 
sufferings,  began  to  fail ;  but,  being  suspected  of  an 
inclination  to  surrender  to  the  enemy,  they  were  punished 
with  immediate  death,  as  guilty  of  impiety  in  distrust- 
ing the  power  of  God.  One  of  the  king's  wives  having 
uttered  certain  words  which  implied  some  doubt  con- 
cerning his  divine  mission,  he  instantly  called  the 
whole  number  together,  and,  commanding  the  blas- 
phemer, as  he  called  her,  to  kneel  down,  cut  off  her 
head  with  his  own  hands ;  and  so  far  were  the  rest 
from  expressing  any  horror  at  this  cruel  deed,  that  they 
joined  him  in  dancing  with  a  frantic  joy  around  the 
bleeding  body  of  their  companion. 

By  this  time  the  besieged  endured  the  utmost  rigour 
of  famine;  but  they  chose  rather  to  suffer  hardships 
the  recital  of  which  is  shocking  to  humanity  than  to 
listen  to  the  terms  of  capitulation  offered  them  by  the 
bishop.  At  last  a  deserter,  whom  they  had  taken  into 
their  service,  being  either  less  intoxicated  with  the 
fumes  of  enthusiasm,  or  unable  any  longer  to  bear  such 
distress,  made  his  escape  to  the  enemy.  He  informed 
their  general  of  a  weak  part  in  the  fortifications  which 
he  had  observed,  and,  assuring  him  that  the  besieged, 
exhausted  with  hunger  and  fatigue,  kept  watch  there 
with  little  care,  he  offered  to  lead  a  party  thither  in 
the  night.  The  proposal  was  accepted,  and  a  chosen 
body  of  troops  appointed  for  the  service,  who,  scaling 


640  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  V. 

the  walls  unperceived,  seized  one  of  the  gates,  and 
admitted  the  rest  of  the  army.  The  Anabaptists,  though 
surprised,  defended  themselves  in  the  market-place 
with  valour  heightened  by  despair;  but,  being  over- 
powered by  numbers,  and  surrounded  on  every  hand, 
most  of  them  were  slain,  and  the  remainder  were  taken 
prisoners.  Among  the  last  were  the  king  and  Cuip- 
perdoling.  The  king,  loaded  with  chains,  was  carried 
from  city  to  city  as  a  spectacle  to  gratify  the  curiosity 
of  the  people,  and  was  exposed  to  all  their  insults. 
His  spirit,  however,  was  not  broken  or  humbled  by 
this  sad  reverse,  of  his  condition;  and  he  adhered 
with  unshaken  firmness  to  the  distinguishing  tenets  of 
his  sect.  After  this,  he  was  brought  back  to  Munster, 
the  scene  of  his  royalty  and  crimes,  and  put  to  death 
with  the  most  exquisite  as  well  as  lingering  tortures, 
all  which  he  bore  with  astonishing  fortitude.  This 
extraordinary  man,  who  had  been  able  to  acquire  such 
amazing  dominion  over  the  minds  of  his  followers  and 
to  excite  commotions  so  dangerous  to  society,  was  only 
twenty-six  years  of  age.60 

Together  with  its  monarch,  the  kingdom  of  the 
Anabaptists  came  to  an  end.  Their  principles  having 
taken  deep  root  in  the  Low  Countries,  the  party  still 
subsists  there,  under  the  name  of  Mennonites;  but,  by 
a  very  singular  revolution,  this  sect,  so  mutinous  and 
sanguinary  at  its  first  origin,  hath  become  altogether 
innocent  and  pacific.  Holding  it  unlawful  to  wage 
war,  or  to  accept  of  civil  offices,  they  devote  themselves 
entirely  to  the  duties  of  private  citizens,  and  by  their 
industry  and  charity  endeavour  to  make  reparation  to 
human  society  for  the  violence  committed  by  their 

60  Sleid.,  190,  etc. — Tuiuultuum  one,  etc.,  libellus  Antonii  Corvini, 

Anabaptistarum,   liber   unus,    Ant.  ap.    Scar.    313. — Annales   Anabap- 

Lamberto    Hortensio    Auctore,   ap.  tistici,  a  Job.   Henrico  Ottio,    4to, 

Scardium,  vol.  ii.  p.  298,  etc. — De  Basilese,  1672. — Cor.  Heersbachius, 

Mvserabili  Monasteriensium  Obsidi-  Hist.  Anab.,  edit.  1637,  p.  140. 


v.J  EMPEKOR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  641 

founders.61  A  small  number  of  this  sect  which  is 
settled  in  England  retain  its  peculiar  tenets  concern- 
ing baptism,  but  without  any  dangerous  mixture  of 
enthusiasm. 

The  mutiny  of  the  Anabaptists,  though  it  drew 
general  attention,  did  not  so  entirely  engross  the  princes 
of  Germany  as  not  to  allow  leisure  for  other  transac- 
tions. The  alliance  between  the  French  king  and  the 
confederates  at  Smalkalde  began  about  this  time  to 
produce  great  effects.  Ulric,  duke  of  Wurtemberg, 
having  been  expelled  his  dominions  in  the  year  1519 
on  account  of  his  violent  and  oppressive  administra- 
tion, the  house  of  Austria  had  got  possession  of  his 
duchy.  That  prince,  having  now  by  a  long  exile 
atoned  for  the  errors  in  his  conduct,  which  were  the 
effect  rather  of  inexperience  than  of  a  tyrannical  dis- 
position, was  become  the  object  of  general  compassion. 
The  landgrave  of  Hesse,  in  particular,  his  near  relation, 
warmly  espoused  his  interest,  and  used  many  efforts 
to  recover  for  him  his  ancient  inheritance.  But  the 
king  of  the  Eomans  obstinately  refused  to  relinquish 
a  valuable  acquisition  which  his  fe_iily  had  made  with 
so  much  ease.  The  landgrave,  unable  to  compel  him, 
applied  to  the  king  of  France,  his  new  ally.  Francis, 
eager  to  embrace  any  opportunity  of  distressing  the 
house  of  Austria,  and  desirous  of  wresting  from  it 
a  territory  which  gave  it  footing  and  influence  in  a 
part  of  Germany  at  a  distance  from  its  other  dominions, 
encouraged  the  landgrave  to  take  arms,  and  secretly 
supplied  him  with  a  large  sum  of  money.  This  he 
employed  to  raise  troops,  and,  marching  with  great 
expedition  towards  Wurtemberg,  attacked,  defeated, 
and  dispersed  a  considerable  body  of  Austrians,  intrusted 
with  the  defence  of  the  country.  All  the  duke's  sub- 
jects hastened,  with  emulation,  to  receive  their  native 

61  Bayle,  Diction.,  ait.  Anabaptistu. 

TOL.   I  T  T 


642  REIGN.  OF  THfi  [BOOK  T. 

prince,  and  reinvested  him  with,  that  authority  which 
is  still  enjoyed  by  his  descendants.  At  the  same  time, 
the  exercise  of  the  Protestant  religion  was  established 
in  his  dominions.62 

Ferdinand,  how  sensible  soever  of  this  unexpected 
blow,  not  daring  to  attack  a  prince  whom  all  the  Pro- 
testant powers  in  Germany  were  ready  to  support, 
judged  it  expedient  to  conclude  a  treaty  with  him, 
by  which,  in  the  most  ample  form,  he  recognized  his 
title  to  the  duchy.  The  success  of  the  landgrave's 
operations  in  behalf  of  the  duke  of  Wurtemberg  having 
convinced  Ferdinand  that  a  rupture  with  a  league  so 
formidable  as  that  of  Smalkalde  was  to  be  avoided  with 
the  utmost  care,  he  entered  likewise  into  a  negotiation 
with  the  elector  of  Saxony,  the  head  of  that  union; 
and  by  some  concessions  in  favour  of  the  Protestant 
religion,  and  others  of  advantage  to  the  elector  himself, 
he  prevailed  on  him,  together  with  his  confederates, 
to  acknowledge  his  title  as  king  of  the  Eomans.  At 
the  same  time,  in  order  to  prevent  any  such  pre- 
cipitate or  irregular  election  in  times  to  come,  it  was 
agreed  that  no  person  should  hereafter  be  promoted 
to  that  dignity  without  the  unanimous  consent  of  the 
electors ;  and  the  emperor  soon  after  confirmed  this 
stipulation.63 

These  acts  of  indulgence  towards  the  Protestants,  and 
the  close  union  into  which  the  king  of  the  Eomans 
seemed  to  be  entering  with  the  princes  of  that  party, 
gave  great  offence  at  Eome.  Paul  III.,  though  he  had 
departed  from  a  resolution  of  his  predecessor  never  to 
consent  to  the  calling  of  a  general  council,  and  had 
promised,  in  the  first  consistory  held  after  his  election, 
that  he  would  convoke  that  assembly  so  much  desired 
by  all  Christendom,  was  no  less  enraged  than  Clement 

M  Sleid.  172.— Mem.  de  Bellay,  63  Sleid.    173.— Corps    Diplom., 

159,  etc.  torn.  iv.  pp.  2,  119. 


BOOK  r.j         EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  643 

at  the  innovations  in  Germany,  and  no  less  averse  to 
any  scheme  for  reforming  either  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church  or  the  abuses  in  the  court  of  Rome.  But, 
having  been  a  witness  of  the  universal  censures  which 
Clement  had  incurred  by  his  obstinacy  with  regard  to 
these  points,  he  hoped  to  avoid  the  same  reproach  by 
the  seeming  alacrity  with  which  he  proposed  a  council ; 
nattering  himself,  however,  that  such  difficulties  would 
arise  concerning  the  time  and  place  of  meeting,  the 
persons  who  had  a  right  to  be  present,  and  the  order 
of  their  proceedings,  as  would  effectually  defeat  the 
intention  of  those  who  demanded  that  assembly,  with- 
out exposing  himself  to  any  imputation  for  refusing  to 
call  it.  With  this  view,  he  despatched  nuncios  to  the 
several  courts,  in  order  to  make  known  his  intention 
that  he  had  fixed  on  Mantua  as  the  proper  place  in 
which  to  hold  the  council.  Such  difficulties  as  the  pope 
had  foreseen  immediately  presented  themselves  in  great 
number.  The  French  king  did  not  approve  of  the  place 
which  Paul  had  chosen,  as  the  papal  and  imperial  influ- 
ence would  necessarily  be  too  great  in  a  town  situated 
in  that  part  of  Italy.  The  king  of  England  not  only 
concurred  with  Francis  in  urging  that  objection,  but 
refused,  besides,  to  acknowledge  any  council  called  in 
the  name  and  by  the  authority  of  the  pope.  The  Ger- 
man Protestants,  having  met  together  at  Smalkalde, 
insisted  on  their  original  demand  of  a  council  to  be  held 
in  Germany,  and,  pleading  the  emperor's  promise  as  well 
as  the  agreement  at  Eatisbon  to  that  effect,  declared  that 
they  would  not  consider  an  assembly  held  at  Mantua  as 
a  legal  or  free  representative  of  the  Church.  By  this 
diversity  of  sentiments  and  views,  such  a  field  for  intrigue 
and  negotiation  opened  as  made  it  easy  for  the  pope  to 
assume  the  merit  of  being  eager  to  assemble  a  council, 
while  at  the  same  time  he  could  put  off  its  meeting  at 
pleasure.  The  Protestants,  on  the  other  hand,  suspect- 

1-   T  * 


644  BEIGN  OF  THE  LBOOK  v- 

ing  his  designs,  and  sensible  of  the  importance  which 
they  derived  from  their  union,  renewed  for  ten  years 
the  league  of  Smalkalde,  which  now  became  stronger 
and  more  formidable  by  the  accession  of  several  new 
members.64 

During  these  transactions  in  Germany,  the  emperor 
undertook  his  famous  enterprise  against  the  piratical 
states  in  Africa.  That  part  of  the  African  continent 
lying  along  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  which 
anciently  formed  the  kingdoms  of  Mauritania  and  Mas- 
sylia,  together  with  the  republic  of  Carthage,  and  which 
is  now  known  by  the  general  name  of  Barbary,  had 
undergone  many  revolutions.  Subdued  by  the  Romans, 
it  became  a  province  of  their  empire.  When  it  was 
conquered  afterwards  by  the  Vandals,  they  erected  a 
kingdom  there.  That  being  overturned  by  Belisarius, 
the  country  became  subject  to  the  Greek  emperors,  and 
continued  to  be  so  until  it  was  overrun,  towards  the  end 
of  the  seventh  century,  by  the  rapid  and  irresistible 
arms  of  the  Arabians.  It  remained  for  some  time  a  part 
of  that  vast  empire  which  the  Caliphs  governed  with  ab- 
solute authority.  Its  immense  distance,  however,  from 
the  seat  of  government  encouraged  the  descendants  of 
those  leaders  who  had  subdued  the  country,  or  the  chiefs 
of  the  Moors,  its  ancient  inhabitants,  to  throw  off  the 
yoke  and  to  assert  their  independence.  The  Caliphs, 
who  derived  their  authority  from  a  spirit  of  enthusiasm 

64  This  league  was  concluded  De-  Albert,  counts  of  Mansfield  ;  Wil- 

cember,  1535,  but  not  extended  or  liam,  count  of  Nassau.      The  cities, 

signed  in  form  till  September  in  Strasburg,   Nuremberg,    Constance, 

the  following  year.      The  princes  Ulin,    Magdeburg,    Bremen,    Reut- 

who  acceded  to  it  were,  John,  elector  lingen,      Heilbronn,     Memmingen, 

of  Saxony  ;  Ernest,  duke  of  Bruns-  Lindau,      Campen,     Isna,     Bibrac, 

wick ;  Philip,  landgrave  of  Hesse  ;  Windsheim,    Aug.sburg,    Frankfort, 

Ulric,  duke  of  "\Turtemberg  ;  Bar-  Esling,  Brunswick,  Goslar,  Hanover, 

nim  and  Philip,  dukes  of  Pomera-  Gottingen,     Eimbeck,      Hamburg, 

nia ;   John,   George,   and  Joachim,  Minden. 
princes   of  Anhulfc ;    Gebhard  and 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEROR  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  645 

more  fitted  for  making  conquests  than  for  preserving 
them,  were  obliged  to  connive  at  acts  of  rebellion  which 
they  could  not  prevent ;  and  Barbary  was  divided  into 
several  kingdoms,  of  which  Morocco,  Algiers,  and  Tunis 
were  the  most  considerable.  The  inhabitants  of  these 
kingdoms  were  a  mixed  race — Arabs,  Negroes  from  the 
southern  provinces,  and  Moors,  either  natives  of  Africa, 
or  who  had  been  expelled  out  of  Spain  ;  all  zealous  pro- 
fessors of  the  Mahometan  religion,  and  inflamed  against 
Christianity  with  a  bigoted  hatred  proportional  to  their 
ignorance  and  barbarous  manners. 

Among  these  people,  no  less  daring,  inconstant,  and 
treacherous  than  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  same 
country  described  by  the  Eoman  historians,  frequent 
seditions  broke  out,  and  many  changes  in  government 
took  place.  These,  as  they  affected  only  the  internal 
state  of  a  country  extremely  barbarous,  are  but  little 
known,  and  deserve  to  be  so.  But  about  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century  a  sudden  revolution  happened, 
which,  by  rendering  the  states  of  Barbary  formidable  to 
the  Europeans,  hath  made  their  history  worthy  of  more 
attention.  This  revolution  was  brought  about  by  per- 
sons born  in  a  rank  of  life  which  entitled  them  to  act 
no  such  illustrious  part.  Horuc  and  Hayradin,  the  sons 
of  a  potter  in  the  isle  of  Lesbos,  prompted  by  a  restless 
and  enterprising  spirit,  forsook  their  father's  trade,  ran 
to  sea,  and  joined  a  crew  of  pirates.  They  soon  distin- 
guished themselves  by  their  valour  and  activity,  and, 
becoming  masters  of  a  small  brigantine,  carried  on  their 
infamous  trade  with  such  conduct  and  success  that  they 
assembled  a  fleet  of  twelve  galleys,  besides  many  vessels 
of  smaller  force.  Of  this  fleet  Horuc,  the  elder  brother, 
called  Barbarossa  from  the  red  colour  of  his  beard,  was 
admiral,  and  Hayradin  second  in  command,  but  with 
almost  equal  authority.  They  called  themselves  the 
friends  of  the  sea,  and  the  enemies  of  all  who  sail  upon 


646  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  v. 

it ;  and  their  names  soon  became  terrible  from  the  Straits 
of  the  Dardanelles  to  those  of  Gibraltar.  Together  with 
their  fame  and  power,  their  ambitious  views  extended, 
and,  while  acting  as  corsairs,  they  adopted  the  ideas  and 
acquired  the  talents  of  conquerors.  They  often  carried 
the  prizes  which  they  took  on  the  coast  of  Spain  and 
Italy  into  the  ports  of  Barbary,  and,  enriching  the  in- 
habitants by  the  sale  of  their  booty  and  the  thoughtless 
prodigality  of  their  crews,  were  welcome  guests  in  every 
place  at  which  they  touched.  The  convenient  situation 
of  these  harbours,  lying  so  near  the  greatest  commercial 
states  at  that  time  in  Christendom,  made  the  brothers 
wish  for  an  establishment  in  that  country.  An  oppor- 
tunity of  accomplishing  this  quickly  presented  itself, 
which  they  did  not  suffer  to  pass  unimproved.  Eutemi, 
king  of  Algiers,  having  attempted  several  times,  without 
success,  to  take  a  fort  which  the  Spanish  governors  of 
Oran  had  built  not  far  from  his  capital,  was  so  ill 
advised  as  to  apply  for  aid  to  Barbarossa,  whose  valour 
the  Africans  considered  as  irresistible.  The  active  cor- 
sair gladly  accepted  of  the  invitation,  and,  leaving  his 
brother  Hayradin  with  the  fleet,  marched  at  the  head  of 
five  thousand  men  to  Algiers,  where  he  was  received  as 
their  deliverer.  Such  a  force  gave  him  the  command  of 
the  town ;  and  as  he  perceived  that  the  Moors  neither 
suspected  him  of  any  bad  intention  nor  were  capable 
with  their  light-armed  troops  of  opposing  his  disciplined 
veterans,  he  secretly  murdered  the  monarch  whom  he 
had  come  to  assist,  and  proclaimed  himself  king  of 
Algiers  in  his  stead.  The  authority  which  he  had  thus 
boldly  usurped  he  endeavoured  to  establish  by  arts 
suited  to  the  genius  of  the  people  whom  he  had  to 
govern ;  by  liberality  without  bounds  to  those  who 
favoured  his  promotion,  and  by  cruelty  no  less  un- 
bounded towards  all  whom  he  had  any  reason  to  dis- 
trust. Not  satisfied  with  the  throne  which  ho  had 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  647 

acquired,  he  attacked  the  neighbouring  king  of  Treme- 
cen, and,  having  vanquished  him  in  battle,  added  his 
dominions  to  those  of  Algiers.  At  the  same  time,  he 
continued  to  infest  the  coasts  of  Spain  and  Italy  with 
fleets  which  resembled  the  armaments  of  a  great  monarch 
rather  than  the  light  squadrons  of  a  corsair.  Their  fre- 
quent and  cruel  devastations  obliged  Charles,  about  the 
beginning  of  his  reign,  to  furnish  the  marquis  de  Co- 
mares,  governor  of  Oran,  with  troops  sufficient  to  attack 
him.  That  officer,  assisted  by  the  dethroned  king  of 
Tremecen,  executed  the  commission  with  such  spirit 
that,  Barbarossa's  troops  being  beaten  in  several  en- 
counters, he  himself  was  shut  up  in  Tremecen.  After 
defending  it  to  the  last  extremity,  he  was  overtaken  in 
attempting  to  make  his  escape,  and  slain  while  he  fought 
with  an  obstinate  valour  worthy  of  his  former  fame  and 
exploits. 

His  brother  Hayradin,  known  likewise  by  the  name 
of  Barbarossa,  assumed  the  sceptre  of  Algiers  with 
the  same  ambition  and  abilities,  but  with  better  for- 
tune. His  reign  being  undisturbed  by  the  arms  of 
the  Spaniards,  which  had  full  occupation  in  the  wars 
among  the  European  powers,  he  regulated  with  admir- 
able prudence  the  interior  police  of  his  kingdom,  carried 
on  his  naval  operations  with  great  vigour,  and  extended 
his  conquests  on  the  continent  of  Africa.  But,  perceiv- 
ing that  the  Moors  and  Arabs  submitted  to  his  govern- 
ment with  reluctance,  and  being  afraid  that  his  continual 
depredations  would  one  day  draw  upon  him  the  arms  of 
the  Christians,  he  put  his  dominions  under  the  protection 
of  the  Grand  Seignior,  and  received  from  him  a  body  of 
Turkish  soldiers  sufficient  for  his  domestic  as  well  as 
foreign  enemies.  At  last,  the  fame  of  his  exploits  daily 
increasing,  Solyman  offered  him  the  command  of  the 
Turkish  fleet,  as  the  only  person  whose  valour  and  skill 
in  naval  affairs  entitled  him  to  command  against  Andrew 


648  EEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  v. 

Doria,  the  greatest  sea-officer  of  that  age.  Proud  of 
this  distinction,  Barbarossa  repaired  to  Constantinople, 
and,  with  a  wonderful  versatility  of  mind,  mingling  the 
arts  of  a  courtier  with  the  boldness  of  a  corsair,  gained 
the  entire  confidence  both  of  the  sultan  and  his 
vizier.  To  them  he  communicated  a  scheme  which 
he  had  formed  of  making  himself  master  of  Tunis, 
the  most  nourishing  kingdom  at  that  time  on  the  coast 
of  Africa ;  and,  this  being  approved  of  by  them,  he 
obtained  whatever  he  demanded  for  carrying  it  into 
execution. 

His  hopes  of  success  in  this  undertaking  were  founded 
on  the  intestine  divisions  in  the  kingdom  of  Tunis. 
Mahmed,  the  last  king  of  that  country,  having  thirty- 
four  sons  by  different  wives,  appointed  Muley-Hascen, 
one  of  the  youngest  among  them,  to  be  his  successor. 
That  weak  prince,  who  owed  this  preference  not  to  his 
own  merit,  but  to  the  ascendant  which  his  mother  had 
acquired  over  a  monarch  doting  with  age,  first  poisoned 
Mahmed,  his  father,  in  order  to  prevent  him  from  alter- 
ing his  destination  with  respect  to  the  succession, 
and  then,  with  the  barbarous  policy  which  prevails 
wherever  polygamy  is  permitted,  and  the  right  of  suc- 
cession is  not  precisely  fixed,  he  put  to  death  all  his 
brothers  whom  he  could  get  into  his  power.  Alraschid, 
one  of  the  eldest,  was  so  fortunate  as  to  escape  his 
rage,  and,  finding  a  retreat  among  the  wandering 
Arabs,  made  several  attempts,  by  the  assistance  of 
some  of  their  chiefs,  to  recover  the  throne  which  of 
right  belonged  to  him.  But  these  proving  unsuc- 
cessful, and  the  Arabs,  from  their  natural  levity,  being 
ready  to  deliver  him  up  to  his  merciless  brother,  he 
fled  to  Algiers,  the  only  place  of  refuge  remaining, 
and  implored  the  protection  of  Barbarossa,  who,  dis- 
cerning at  once  all  the  advantages  which  might  be 
gained  by  supporting  his  title,  received  him  with 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  649 

every  possible  demonstration  of  friendship  and  respect. 
Being  ready  at  that  time  to  set  sail  for  Constantinople, 
he  easily  persuaded  Alraschid,  whose  eagerness  to  obtain 
a  crown  disposed  him  to  believe  or  undertake  anything, 
to  accompany  him  thither,  promising  him  effectual 
assistance  from  Solyman,  whom  he  represented  to  be 
the  most  generous  as  well  as  most  powerful  monarch 
in  the  world.  But  no  sooner  were  they  arrived  at 
Constantinople  than  the  treacherous  corsair,  regardless 
of  all  his  promises  to  him,  opened  to  the  sultan  a 
plan  for  conquering  Tunis  and  annexing  it  to  the 
Turkish  empire,  by  making  use  of  the  name  of  this 
exiled  prince,  and  co-operating  with  the  party  in  the 
kingdom  which  was  ready  to  declare  in  his  favour. 
Solyman  approved,  with  too  much  facility,  of  this  per- 
fidious proposal,  extremely  suitable  to  the  character  of 
its  author,  but  altogether  unworthy  of  a  great  prince. 
A  powerful  fleet  and  numerous  army  were  soon  as- 
sembled, at  the  sight  of  which  the  credulous  Alraschid 
flattered  himself  that  he  should  soon  enter  his  capital 
in  triumph.  • 

But  just  as  this  unhappy  prince  was  going  to  embark, 
he  was  arrested  by  order  of  the  sultan,  shut  up  in  the 
seraglio,  and  was  never  heard  of  more.  Barbarossa 
sailed  with  a  fleet  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  vessels 
towards  Africa.  After  ravaging  the  coasts  of  Italy  and 
spreading  terror  through  every  part  of  that  country,  he 
appeared  before  Tunis,  and,  landing  his  men,  gave  out 
that  he  came  to  assert  the  right  of  Alraschid,  whom  he 
pietended  to  have  left  sick  aboard  the  admiral's  galley. 
The  fort  of  Goletta,  which  commands  the  bay,  soon 
fell  into  his  hands,  partly  by  his  own  address,  partly 
by  the  treachery  of  its  commander ;  and  the  inhabitants 
of  Tunis,  weary  of  Muley-Hascen's  government,  took 
arms,  and  declared  for  Alraschid  with  such  zeal  and 
unanimity  as  obliged  the  former  to  fly  so  precipitately 


650  KEIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  v. 

that  he  left  all  his  treasures  behind  him.  The  gates 
were  immediately  set  open  to  Barbarossa,  as  the  restorer 
of  their  lawful  sovereign.  But  when  Alraschid  him- 
self did  not  appear,  and  when,  instead  of  his  name, 
that  of  Solyman  alone  was  heard  among  the  acclama- 
tions of  the  Turkish  soldiers  marching  into  the  town, 
the  people  of  Tunis  began  to  suspect  the  corsair's 
treachery.  Their  suspicions  being  soon  converted  into 
certainty,  they  ran  to  arms  with  the  utmost  fury,  and 
surrounded  the  citadel  into  which  Barbarossa  had  led 
his  troops.  But,  having  foreseen  such  a  revolution,  he 
was  not  unprepared  for  it :  he  immediately  turned 
against  them  the  artillery  on  the  ramparts,  and  by  one 
brisk  discharge  dispersed  the  numerous  but  undirected 
assailants,  and  forced  them  to  acknowledge  Solyman 
as  their  sovereign,  and  to  submit  to  himself  as  his 
viceroy. 

His  first  care  was  to  put  the  kingdom,  of  which  he 
had  thus  got  possession,  in  a  proper  posture  of  defence. 
He  strengthened  the  citadel  which  commands  the  town, 
and,  fortifying  the  Goletta  in  a  regular  manner,  at  vast 
expense,  made  it  the  principal  station  for  his  fleet,  and 
his  great  arsenal  for  military  as  well  as  naval  stores. 
Being  now  possessed  of  such  extensive  territories,  he 
carried  on  his  depredations  against  the  Christian  states 
to  a  greater  extent  and  with  more  destructive  violence 
than  ever.  Daily  complaints  of  the  outrages  committed 
by  his  cruisers  were  brought  to  the  emperor  by  his 
subjects,  both  in  Spain  and  Italy.  All  Christendom 
seemed  to  expect  from  him,  as  its  greatest  and  most 
fortunate  prince,  that  he  would  put  an  end  to  this  new 
and  odious  species  of  oppression.  At  the  same  time, 
Muley-Hascen,  the  exiled  king  of  Tunis,  finding  none 
of  the  Mahometan  princes  in  Africa  willing  or  able  to 
assist  him  in  recovering  his  throne,  applied  to  Charles 
as  the  only  person  who  could  assert  his  rights  in  oppo- 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEROE  CHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  651 

sition  to  such  a  formidable  usurper.  The  emperor^ 
equally  desirous  of  delivering  his  dominions  from  the 
dangerous  neighbourhood  of  Barbarossa,  of  appearing 
as  the  protector  of  an  unfortunate  prince,  and  of  ac- 
quiring the  glory  annexed  in  that  age  to  every  expe- 
dition against  the  Mahometans,  readily  concluded  a 
treaty  with  Muley-Hasccn,  and  began  to  prepare  for 
invading  Tunis.  Having  made  trial  of  his  own  abilities 
for  war  in  the  late  campaign  in  Hungary,  he  was  now 
become  so  fond  of  the  military  character  that  he  deter- 
mined to  command  on  this  occasion  in  person.  The 
united  strength  of  his  dominions  was  called  out  upon  an 
enterprise  in  which  the  emperor  was  about  to  hazard  his 
glory,  and  which  drew  the  attention  of  all  Europe.  A 
Flemish  fleet  carried  from  the  ports  of  the  Low  Coun- 
tries a  body  of  German  infantry ;  65  the  galleys  of  Naples 
and  Sicily  took  on  board  the  veteran  bands  of  Italians 
and  Spaniards  which  had  distinguished  themselves  by  so 
many  victories  over  the  French ;  the  emperor  himself 
embarked  at  Barcelona  with  the  flower  of  the  Spanish 
nobility,  and  was  joined  by  a  considerable  squadron  from 
Portugal,  under  the  command  of  the  Infant  Don  Lewis, 
the  empress's  brother ;  Andrew  Doria  conducted  his  own 
galleys,  the  best  appointed  at  that  time  in  Europe,  and 
commanded  by  the  most  skilful  officers ;  the  pope  fur- 
nished all  the  assistance  in  his  power  towards  such  a 
pious  enterprise ;  and  the  order  of  Malta,  the  perpetual 
enemies  of  the  infidels,  equipped  a  squadron,  which, 
though  small,  was  formidable  by  the  valour  of  the 
knights  who  served  on  board  it.  The  port  of  Cagliari 
in  Sardinia  was  the  general  place  of  rendezvous.  Doria 
was  appointed  high-admiral  of  the  fleet ;  the  command 
of  the  land-forces  under  the  emperor  was  given  to  the 
marquis  del  Guasto. 

66  Haraei  Annales  Brabant.,  i.  599. 


652  REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  v. 

On  the  16 tli  of  July,  the  fleet,  consisting  of  near  five 
hundred  vessels,  having  on  board  above  thirty  thousand 
regular  troops,  set  sail  from  Cagliari,  and,  after  a 
prosperous  navigation,  landed  within  sight  of  Tunis. 
Barbarossa,  having  received  early  intelligence  of  the 
emperor's  immense  armament,  and  suspecting  its  desti- 
nation, prepared  with  equal  prudence  and  vigour  for  the 
defence  of  his  new  conquest.  He  called  in  all  his  cor- 
sairs from  their  different  stations ;  he  drew  from  Algiers 
what  forces  could  be  spared ;  he  despatched  messengers 
to  all  the  African  princes,  Moors  as  well  as  Arabs,  and, 
by  representing  Muley-Hascen  as  an  infamous  apostate, 
prompted  by  ambition  and  revenge  not  only  to  become 
the  vassal  of  a  Christian  prince,  but  to  conspire  with 
him  to  extirpate  the  Mahometan  faith,  he  inflamed  those 
ignorant  and  bigoted  chiefs  to  such  a  degree  that  they 
took  arms  as  in  a  common  cause.  Twenty  thousand 
horse,  together  with  a  great  body  of  foot,  soon  assem- 
bled at  Tunis ;  and  by  a  proper  distribution  of  presents 
among  them  from  time  to  time,  Barbarossa  kept  the 
ardour  which  had  brought  them  together  from  sub- 
siding. But,  as  he  was  too  well  acquainted  with  the 
enemy  whom  he  had  to  oppose  to  think  that  these  light 
troops  could  resist  the  heavy-armed  cavalry  and  veteran 
infantry  which  composed  the  imperial  army,  his  chief 
confidence  was  in  the  strength  of  the  Goletta,  and  in  his 
body  of  Turkish  soldiers,  who  were  armed  and  disci- 
plined after  the  European  fashion.  Six  thousand  of 
these,  under  the  command  of  Sinan,  a  renegado  Jew,  the 
bravest  and  most  experienced  of  all  his  corsairs,  he 
threw  into  that  fort,  which  the  emperor  immediately 
invested.  As  Charles  had  the  command  of  the  sea,  his 
camp  was  so  plentifully  supplied  not  only  with  the 
necessaries  but  with  all  the  luxuries  of  life  that  Muley- 
Hascen,  who  had  not  been  accustomed  to  see  war  carried 
on  with  such  ordir  and  magnificence,  was  filled  with 


BOOK  v.J  EMPEEOE  OHAELES  THE  FIFTH.  653 

admiration  of  the  emperor's  power.  His  troops,  ani- 
mated by  his  presence  and  considering  it  as  meritorious 
to  shed  their  blood  in  such  a  pious  cause,  contended 
with  each  other  for  the  posts  of  honour  and  danger. 
Three  separate  attacks  were  concerted,  and  the  Germans, 
Spaniards,  and  Italians,  having  one  of  these  committed 
to  each  of  them,  pushed  them  forward  with  the  eager 
courage  which  national  emulation  inspires.  Sinan  dis- 
played resolution  and  skill  becoming  the  confidence 
which  his  master  had  put  in  him;  the  garrison  per- 
formed the  hard  service  on  which  they  were  ordered 
with  great  fortitude.  But,  though  he  interrupted  the 
besiegers  by  frequent  sallies, — though  the  Moors  and 
Arabs  alarmed  the  camp  with  their  continual  incursions, 
the  breaches  soon  became  so  considerable  towards  the 
land,  while  the  fleet  battered  those  parts  of  the  fortifica- 
tions which  it  could  approach  with  no  less  fury  and 
success,  that,  an  assault  being  given  on  all  sides  at  once, 
the  place  was  taken  by  storm.  Sinan,  with  the  remains 
of  his  garrison,  retired,  after  an  obstinate  resistance,  over 
a  shallow  part  of  the  bay  towards  the  city.  By  the  re- 
duction of  the  Goletta,  the  emperor  became  master  of 
Barbarossa's  fleet,  consisting  of  eighty-seven  galleys  and 
galliots,  together  with  his  arsenal  and  three  hundred 
cannon,  mostly  brass,  which  were  planted  on  the  ram- 
parts ;  a  prodigious  number  in  that  age,  and  a  remark- 
able proof  of  the  strength  of  the  fort,  as  well  as  of  the 
greatness  of  the  corsair's  power.  The  emperor  marched 
into  the  Goletta  through  the  breach,  and,  turning  to 
Muley-Hascen,  who  attended  him,  "  Here,"  says  he,  "  is 
a  gate  open  to  you,  by  which  you  shall  return  to  take 
possession  of  your  dominions." 

Barbarossa,  though  he  felt  the  full  weight  of  the  blow 
which  he  had  received,  did  not,  however,  lose  courage 
or  abandon  the  defence  of  Tunis.  But,  as  the  walls 
were  of  great  extent  and  extremely  weak,  as  he  could 


REIGN  OF  THE  [BOOK  v. 

not  depend  on  the  fidelity  of  the  inhabitants,  nor  hope 
that  the  Moors  and  Arabs  would  sustain  the  hardships 
of  a  siege,  he  boldly  determined  to  advance  with  his 
army,  which  amounted  to  fifty  thousand  men,66  towards 
the  imperial  camp,  and  to  decide  the  fate  of  his  king- 
dom by  the  issue  of  a  battle.  This  resolution  he  com- 
municated to  his  principal  officers,  and,  representing 
to  them  the  fatal  consequences  which  might  follow  if 
ten  thousand  Christian  slaves  whom  he  had  shut  up  in 
the  citadel  should  attempt  to  mutiny  during  the  absence 
of  the  army,  he  proposed,  as  a  necessary  precaution  for 
the  public  security,  to  massacre  them  without  mercy 
before  he  began  his  march.  They  all  approved  warmly 
of  his  intention  to  fight;  but,  inured  as  they  were  in 
their  piratical  depredations  to  scenes  of  bloodshed  and 
cruelty,  the  barbarity  of  his  proposal  concerning  the 
slaves  filled  them  with  horror;  and  Barbarossa,  rather 
from  the  dread  of  irritating  them  than  swayed  by 
motives  of  humanity,  consented  to  spare  the  lives  of 
the  slaves. 

By  this  time  the  emperor  had  begun  to  advance 
towards  Tunis;  and,  though  his  troops  suffered  incon- 
ceivable hardships  in  their  march,  over  burning  sands, 
destitute  of  water,  and  exposed  to  the  intolerable  heat 
of  the  sun,  they  soon  came  up  with  the  enemy.  The 
Moors  and  Arabs,  emboldened  by  their  vast  superiority 
in  number,  immediately  rushed  on  to  the  attack  with 
loud  shouts ;  but  their  undisciplined  courage  could  not 
long  stand  the  shock  of  regular  battalions  ;  and  though 
Barbarossa,  with  admirable  presence  of  mind,  and  by 
exposing  his  own  person  to  the  greatest  dangers,  en- 
deavoured to  rally  them,  the  rout  became  so  general  that 
he  himself  was  hurried  along  with  them  in  their  flight 
back  to  the  city.  There  he  found  everything  in  the 

"  Epistres  det  Princes,  par  Ruscelli,  p.  119,  etc. 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  655 

utmost  confusion ;  some  of  the  inhabitants  flying  with 
their  families  and  effects,  others  ready  to  set  open  their 
gates  to  the  conqueror,  the  Turkish  soldiers  preparing  to 
retreat,  and  the  citadel,  which  in  such  circumstances 
might  have  afforded  him  some  refuge,  already  in  the 
possession  of  the  Christian  captives.  These  unhappy 
men,  rendered  desperate  by  their  situation,  had  laid 
hold  on  the  opportunity  which  Barbarossa  dreaded. 
As  soon  as  his  army  was  at  some  distance  from  the 
town,  they  gained  two  of  their  keepers,  by  whose 
assistance,  knocking  off  their  fetters  and  bursting  open 
their  prisons,  they  overpowered  the  Turkish  garrison 
and  turned  the  artillery  of  the  fort  against  their  former 
masters.  Barbarossa,  disappointed  and  enraged,  ex- 
claiming sometimes  against  the  false  compassion  of  his 
officers,  and  sometimes  condemning  his  own  imprudent 
compliance  with  their  opinions,  fled  precipitately  to 
Bona. 

Meanwhile,  Charles,  satisfied  with  the  easy  and 
almost  bloodless  victory  which  he  had  gained,  and 
advancing  slowly  with  the  precaution  necessary  in  an 
enemy's  country,  did  not  yet  know  the  whole  extent 
of  his  own  good  fortune.  But  at  last  a  messenger 
despatched  by  the  slaves  acquainted  him  with  the  success 
of  their  noble  effort  for  the  recovery  of  their  liberty ; 
and  at  the  same  time  deputies  arrived  from  the  town, 
in  order  to  present  him  the  keys  of  their  gates,  and  to 
implore  his  protection  from  military  violence.  While 
he  was  deliberating  concerning  the  proper  measures  for 
this  purpose,  the  soldiers,  fearing  that  they  should  be 
deprived  of  the  booty  which  they  had  expected,  rushed 
suddenly  and  without  orders  into  the  town,  and  began 
to  kill  and  plunder  without  distinction.  It  was  then 
too  late  to  restrain  their  cruelty,  their  avarice,  or  licen- 
tiousness. All  the  outrages  of  which  soldiers  are  capable 
in  the  fury  of  a  storm,  all  the  excesses  of  which  men 


656  EEIGN  OF  THE  [>OK  v. 

can  be  guilty  when  their  passions  are  heightened  by 
the  contempt  and  hatred  which  difference  in  manner^ 
and  religion  inspires,  were  committed.  Above  thirty 
thousand  of  the  innocent  inhabitants  perished  on  that 
unhappy  day,  and  ten  thousand  were  carried  away  as 
slaves.  Muley-Hascen  took  possession  of  a  throne 
surrounded  with  carnage,  abhorred  by  his  subjects, 
on  whom  he  had  brought  such  calamities,  and  pitied 
even  by  those  whose  rashness  had  been  the  occasion 
of  them.  The  emperor  lamented  the  fatal  accident 
which  had  stained  the  lustre  of  his  victory  ;  and  amidst 
such  a  scene  of  horror  there  was  but  one  spectacle  that 
afforded  him  any  satisfaction.  Ten  thousand  Christian 
slaves,  among  whom  were  several  persons  of  distinction, 
met  him  as  he  entered  the  town,  and,  falling  on  their 
knees,  thanked  and  blessed  him  as  their  deliverer. 

At  the  same  time  that  Charles  accomplished  his  pro- 
mise to  the  Moorish  king  of  re-establishing  him  in  his 
dominions,  he  did  not  neglect  what  was  necessary 
for  bridling  the  power  of  the  African  corsairs,  for  the 
security  of  his  own  subjects,  and  for  the  interest  of  the 
Spanish  crown.  In  order  to  gain  these  ends,  he  con- 
cluded a  treaty  with  Muley-Hascen  on  the  following 
conditions  :  That  he  should  hold  the  kingdom  of  Tunis 
in  fee  of  the  crown  of  Spain,  and  do  homage  to  the 
emperor  as  his  liege-lord ;  that  all  the  Christian  slaves 
now  within  his  dominions,  of  whatever  nation,  should 
be  set  at  liberty  without  ransom;  that  no  subject  of 
the  emperor's  should  for  the  future  be  detained  in  ser- 
vitude ;  that  no  Turkish  corsair  should  be  admitted  into 
the  ports  of  his  dominions;  that  free  trade,  together 
with  the  public  exercise  of  the  Christian  religion, 
should  be  allowed  to  all  the  emperor's  subjects ;  that 
the  emperor  should  not  only  retain  the  Goletta,  but 
that  all  the  other  sea-ports  in  the  kingdom  which  were 
fortified  should  be  put  into  his  hands;  that  Muley- 


BOOK  v.]  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH.  657 

Hascen  should  pay  annually  twelve  thousand  crowns 
for  the  subsistence  of  the  Spanish  garrison  in  the 
Goletta ;  that  he  should  enter  into  no  alliance  with 
any  of  the  emperor's  enemies,  and  should  present  to 
him  every  year,  as  an  acknowledgment  of  his  vassalage, 
six  Moorish  horses,  and  as  many  hawks.67  Having  thus 
settled  the  affairs  of  Africa,  chastised  the  insolence  of 
the  corsairs,  secured  a  safe  retreat  for  the  ships  of  his 
subjects,  and  a  proper  station  to  his  own  fleets,  on  that 
coast  from  which  he  was  most  infested  by  piratical 
depredations,  Charles  embarked  again  for  Europe,  the 
tempestuous  weather  and  sickness  among  his  troops  not 
permitting  him  to  pursue  Barbarossa.68 

By  this  expedition,  the  merit  of  which  seems  to  have 
been  estimated  in  that  age  rather  by  the  apparent 
generosity  of  the  undertaking,  the  magnificence  where- 
with it  was  conducted,  and  the  success  which  crowned 
it,  than  by  the  importance  of  the  consequences  that 
attended  it,  the  emperor  attained  a  greater  height  of 
glory  than  at  any  other  period  of  his  reign.  Twenty 
thousand  slaves  whom  he  freed  from  bondage  either 
by  his  arms  or  by  his  treaty  with  Muley-Hascen,69  each 
of  whom  he  clothed  and  furnished  with  the  means  of 
returning  to  their  respective  countries,  spread  all  over 
Europe  the  fame  of  their  benefactor's  munificence, 
extolling  his  power  and  abilities  with  the  exaggeration 
flowing  from  gratitude  and  admiration.  In  comparison 
with  him,  the  other  monarchs  of  Europe  made  an  incon- 
siderable figure.  They  seemed  to  be  solicitous  about 


''"  Du  Mont,  Corps  Diplomat,  ii  de  Malthe. — Epistres  des   Princes, 

128. — Summonte.  Hist,  di  Napoli,  par  Ruscelli,   traduites   par   Belle» 

iv.  89.  forest,  pp.  119,  120,  etc. — Anton. 

68  Jok  Etropii  Diarium  Expedi-  Pontii  Consentiui  Hist.   Belli  adr. 

tion.  Tunetanse,  ap.  Scard.,  voL  ii  Barbar.,  ap.  Mattbaji  Analecta. 
p.    320,    etc. — -Jovii    Histor.,   lib.  Gl  Summonte,    Hist    di    Mapolf, 

ixiiv.  153,  etc. — Sandoval,  ii  164,  voL  iv.  p.  103. 
etc. — Vertot,   Hist,   des  Chevaliers 

VOL.    I.  U  U 


REIGN  OF  CHARLES  THE  FLbTH.  BOOK  v. 

nothing  but  their  private  and  particular  interest ;  while 
Charles,  with  an  elevation  of  sentiment  which  became 
the  chief  prince  in  Christendom,  appeared  to  be  con- 
cerned for  the  honour  of  the  Christian  name  and  attentive 
to  the  public  security  and  welfare. 


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